GhanaElection 2008 seven eminent persons and was led by Baroness Valerie Amos, former leader of the House of Lords and Minister for Africa(UK) The European Union(EU) was also invited by the EC and arrived and stayed in the country from 1 st November 2008 to 24 th January 2009. The European Union-Election Observer Mission(EU-EOM) was led by Nikolay Mladenov, member of the European Parliament for Bulgaria. The mission deployed 24 European Union member states and Norway to all the 10 regions of the country to assess the electoral process against international and regional standards for elections as well as the laws of Ghana. The EC invited other regional bodies. The Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS) led by the ECOWAS President, Dr. Ibn Chambas, arrived in the country for an earlier assessment in October. Their mandate was to assess the preparedness of the Electoral Commission to conduct credible elections. Electoral Institute of South Africa(EISA) also responded to the invitation of the Electoral Commission and constituted a 15 member team made up of representative of Electoral Institutions and other Civil Society Organisations from 12 African countries. The team was led by Dr. Khabele Matlosa. The mission was preceded in Ghana by a small advance team, whose principal mandate was to examine the legal, political and historical conditions prior to the elections as well as to make the necessary arrangements for the arrival of the observers. · The objective of the team was to assess, among other things, conditions for the conduct of elections. Specifically, the team was: · To assess and determine whether the elections would be conducted in accordance with the constitutional and legal framework for elections in Ghana · To examine the transparency and fairness of the process- whether the electoral process in Ghana was in conformity with the 2002 African Union(AU) Declaration on Principles Governing Democratic Elections in Africa, and the 2005 United Nations Declaration of the Principles for International Election Observation. · To ascertain whether the electoral process could ensure credibility of the outcome of the elections. The EISA Mission, which was composed of various teams, was briefed on the electoral process prior to their deployment countrywide. The Mission's observation after the briefing was that the planned conduct of the general 11