EU Ambassador Dr. Reena Cuenca has said that the European Union will send a small mission of election experts for the February 8 election in Pakistan instead of a full-fledged election observer mission.

She spoke to Aaj News on Saturday hours after reports emerged that the EU was not sending election observers to Pakistan.

“An election expert mission is different from election observation mission. An expert mission is really made up of people who do nothing but monitor elections. They do not give a political assessment whether the elections have been fair and do not give recommendations,” she told Shaukat Piracha on his show Rubaroo on Saturday.

She went on to add that the findings of the mission will not be made public without the government’s approval.

According to her, the EU needs several months time to be able to send an observation mission.

“We have to budget for sending an observation mission and frankly we did not know just like the rest of Pakistan did not know for a long time when the elections will take place,” Dr Cuenca said.

Reacting to the announcement of election date, she said that the EU countries were looking forward to a free and fair electoral process.

“We are very encouraged that there is a date for the elections and we are looking for it to seeing those elections take place in a free, fair and inclusive manner. It will be a test for Pakistan’s devotion towards democracy,” she added.

German Ambassador to Pakistan Alfred Grannas said that it was difficult to send a full-fledged mission for election due to the paucity of time.

“As far as I can say there are some processes in the making that some people will come. Whether it will be full-fledged election observer mission - probably not because it is too short from the announcement of the election date to the election date itself,” he added.

Ambassador Grannas said that Germany was confident that the electoral process will be handled in a way that could result in a legitimate elected government.

“I agree that a level playing field is a very important thing for fair elections. I am not in a position to say anything about its presence or absence. I think the electoral process will show and we are confident and very much rely on the Pakistani democracy to function,” he added.