The purpose of the World Elections Monitors Organization (WEMO) is to provide parliamentarians and diplomats as election observers to operate worldwide in collaboration with other democracy-building organizations.
To this end, WEMO is recruiting and training parliamentarians and diplomats from across the globe.
WEMO will involve legislators in other democracy-building endeavours, especially those related to strengthening legislative institutions, and employ its resources to assist in the establishment and training of national observer groups including political party scrutineers.
Since the third wave of democratization began in 1974, more than 60 countries in Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa have begun transitions from authoritarian regimes to some form of democracy.
With this historic move towards democratization and the disappearance of the East-West conflict, more and more states adopting democratic procedures and rules have come to regard the certification or validation of their election results by a trained, objective, independent and authoritative election mission as not only highly desirable but also, in many cases, absolutely vital.
As experience has been gained in election observation by participating states and organizations, increasing emphasis is being placed upon the assessment of pre-election circumstances and environment, and post-election follow-up on governance needs identified during the electoral period.
Since its inception, WEMO has developed a standard international election monitoring curriculum and an online refresher, trained a cadre of 70 former legislators, and participated in many election monitoring missions, including in Afghanistan, Belarus, Burundi, Georgia, Haiti, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Morocco, and Tunisia.
The World Elections Monitors Organization is a leading global actor in providing technical electoral assistance and expertise complementary to election observation. This dual form of World Elections Monitors Organization support constitutes a significant contribution to the promotion of governance and development objectives.
With these objectives in mind, the World Elections Monitors Organization has become a leading force in international election observation.
Since 2006 over 12 World Elections Monitors Organization teams have been deployed to all continents , following a long-term observation methodology to assess election processes according to international standards and best practices for genuine democratic elections
In addition to election observation, the World Elections Monitors Organization is engaged in election assistance, which provides technical or informational support to electoral processes.
The purpose of World Elections Monitors Organization election observation missions (IEOMs) is to assist partner countries in holding elections of a high standard. In this context, the World Elections Monitors Organization conducts a comprehensive analysis of the electoral process and provides an impartial and informed assessment of the elections to strengthen the confidence of voters to participate freely
An observation mission assesses all aspects of the electoral process, its constitutional and legal framework, the delimitation of constituencies, the registration of voters and candidates, the training of election staff, voter education, media coverage, the campaign and the preparations for election day, as well as the appeals process.
On election day, observers visit pooling stations in order to observe the opening, voting, counting and aggregation of results.Its fundamental principles are full coverage, impartiality, transparency and professionalism. Election observation gives the opportunity to assess an electoral process according to international standards.
European Council on International Relations 