Maria MUÑIZ DE URQUIZA (Spain) - Chief Observer
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Maria has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats since 2009. Earlier this year she headed the European Parliament's election observation delegation to Chad, where the European Union also had a long-term observation mission. Maria is chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation to the EU-Chile Joint Parliamentary Committee. She is also a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly and the Conference of Delegation Chairs. Between 2004 and 2009 Maria was policy advisor to the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, focusing on external affairs, human rights and civil liberties. In her native Spain, she is a member and former Communications Secretary of the Socialist Workers’ Party of Spain, Europe. Maria has a doctorate (PhD) in political science and sociology. She is also a former lecturer in international public law in Spain.
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David WARD (United Kingdom) - Deputy Chief Observer
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David has worked on a wide range of issues in the development sector specialising in the areas of good governance, elections and the media. He has worked for a number of European governments, the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Development as well as international organisations including the European Commission, Council of Europe, Electoral Reform International, the Venice Commission and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). David has managed a range of technical assistance programmes and has held a number of positions on European Union election observation missions (EU EOMs) in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. He was the Deputy Chief Observer for the EU EOMs in Ghana and Malawi in 2009. David has a PhD and has authored over 50 published works. For the past two years he has been an advisor to the Democratic Governance Cluster of UNDP in Bangladesh.
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Richard BARRETT (Ireland) - Legal Analyst
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Richard Barrett is an Irish barrister and from the mid 1990s he was a legal adviser in the Attorney General’s Office in Dublin on justice and home affairs and electoral matters. From 2000 to 2002 he was Head of Public Law at the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia. From 2003 to 2006 he was the legal adviser to a police/revenue agency in Ireland tasked with forfeiting or taxing the proceeds of criminal activity. Since 2010 he has worked as legal analyst with the EU EOMs in Sudan and Afghanistan, with the OSCE in Cyprus and on a justice twinning project in Kosovo.
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Dimitra IOANNOU (Greece) - Election Analyst
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Dimitra has a degree in law and a postgraduate degree in human rights and international law. She has wide working experience in the field of election observation and technical assistance, having taken part in some 40 missions with the OSCE/ODIHR in the Balkans, Eastern Europe and Central Asia and with the EU in Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia. Most recently, she was Deputy Head of Mission for the OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission to Belarus and the legal/election expert for the EU exploratory mission to Zambia.
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Martina CIGANIKOVA (Slovakia) - Political and Country Analyst
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Martina has a PhD in African studies with a specialisation in democratisation processes and governance issues in Africa. She also holds degrees in International Development and Social and Cultural Anthropology. She has an academic background and currently works as a lecturer at the Department of African Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria. She has participated in EU EOMs to Ghana, Malawi, Sudan,Tanzania and Nigeria. Martina has also authored several publications in the areas of democratisation and governance.
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Claudia ARANDA (Portugal) - Media Analyst
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Cláudia Aranda is a journalist with experience as a media analyst and press officer. She has directed two EU EOM media monitoring projects in Guinea Bissau (2009) and Iraq (2010). For the past six months she has been working as a media and elections expert for a project supporting the 2010 to 2012 electoral cycle in Timor Leste and PALOP (Portuguese-speaking African countries). Cláudia has been in charge of identifying and establishing procedures to enhance media professionalism in line with international standards by promoting professional ethics and self-regulation. She has also worked for the United Nations Transitional Administration in Timor Leste and for the International Organization for Migration out-of-country voting programme for the 2005 Iraq elections. She holds a masters degree from the ISCTE / IUL in Lisbon.
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Andreu SOLA (Spain) - Observer Coordinator
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Andreu is a consultant lecturer in conflict resolution at the Open University of Catalonia. He holds a PhD in Conflict Resolution from the University of Bradford. Andreu has lectured in international politics and security studies in a number of universities in the United Kingdom, including Birmingham and Manchester. He has also published monographs and journal articles on conflict resolution and peace building in West Africa. For the last five years, Andreu has participated as a long-term observer in several EU EOMs in Africa.
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Paul ANDERSON (Ireland) - Press Officer
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Paul worked as the press and public outreach officer for the EU EOM to the presidential and parliamentary elections in Uganda in 2011. He has spent his career in international broadcast journalism. He worked for the BBC for almost 20 years, during which he was posted as correspondent to Ukraine, Russia, Serbia and most recently to Pakistan. Five years ago he set up a small production company, to concentrate on video and documentary-making for the international development community. This work has taken him to Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Chad, Sudan, the Caucasus and throughout the European Union.
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Zambia
country profile and political background
