If the government wants foreign election monitors, they should be officially invited immediately - CaFFE 08 July 2013 If authorities are to invite impartial foreign election monitors to observe the coming Northern Provincial Council election they should be invited immediately to conduct their activities properly, said Keerthi Tennakoon, executive director of Campaign for Free and Fair Election (CaFFE.) Representatives from political parties and election commissioner discussed the possibility of foreign election monitors observing the elections even before the northern provincial council election was officially announced. After president established the council last week, opposition political parties have renewed their call for impartial foreign monitors. However if these monitors are to conduct proper election monitoring they should be here in time to understand the structural and political context in which the election is conducted. However by just discussing the possibility of these monitors without taking any action to invite them, CaFFE believes that the government might use this issue to buy time and divert attention. If the authorities are not taking action to invite foreign observers, it should take steps to facilitate the local election monitoring bodies, which are quite capable of monitoring elections. CaFFE director reiterated that only a few organizations are capable of providing election monitors for the Northern Provincial Council election. Out of which the Commonwealth secretariat and European Union being the most prominent. In addition there are several respected and technically capable organizations in the United States. However if any of these organizations are to send monitors the government or the department of elections must formally make a request immediately. Already it is too late to invite the European Union, which takes a few months to prepare a delegation of election monitors. However there is still a possibility that the Commonwealth secretariat maybe able to send a team. Nevertheless it takes the Commonwealth secretariat to at least three weeks to prepare the necessary logistics to send a monitoring team.