/ 3 June 1999

SA ELECTIONS MEET GLOBAL STANDARDS

A GROUP of European parliamentarian observers on Thursday praised South Africa’s elections and found that they meet international standards. Dr Jan Nico Scholten, president of the European Parliamentarians for Africa, said these elections have set a high standard that any country in the world would be proud to obtain.” He noted that there has been unbelievable improvement in the electoral process over South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994. He also praised political parties for a significant reduction in political tensions. His only disappointment was that many voters had to wait for hours to cast their ballots and in some exception cases, voters could not cast them at all.