Thomas Boserup, Deputy Chief Observer (Denmark)

Thomas began working in the field of elections in 1994 and has since participated in over twenty election observation missions around the world. He has extensive experience in electoral management, technical assistance and logistics, having worked for the OSCE supervising elections in Bosnia Herzegovina from 1996-98 and in Kosovo from 1998-2001. He was the Deputy Chief Observer for the EU EOM to Venezuela (2006) and the Deputy Head of Mission for the OSCE in Kazakhstan (2004) and Russia (2004). He has a master’s degree in contemporary history.

Idoia Aranceta , Legal and Human Rights Expert (Spain)

Since January 1999 Idoia has worked in several election related positions in the OSCE mission to Bosnia Herzegovina (BiH). In her role as a member of the BiH Election Commission and head of the OSCE mission’s election support unit, she was involved in the organization and conduct of the 2004 municipal elections. She participated in decision making in cases of conflict of interest, assessed the election regulations and contributed to draft amendments to the Election Law, Conflict of Interest Law and the Law on Financing of Political Parties. She was the Deputy Chief Observer for the EU EOM to Ecuador (2007) and has observed elections in seven other countries as legal and election expert.

Line Urban, Political and Country Expert (Denmark)

Line has two master’s degrees in political science, specializing in international relations with particular emphasis on political transitions, conflict mitigation, democratization and human security. She has worked in South East Asia, Sudan and Europe on conflict mitigation and the delivery of humanitarian aid. From 2004-06, Line worked for a diplomatic mission in Nepal and regularly contributed to reports on the political situation, incorporating the conflict, human rights and the peace process. She has previously been a short term observer for the OSCE.

Eric Des Pallieres, Election Expert (France)

Eric has over ten years experience in democratization, elections and conflict resolution. He has worked in both technical assistance and election observation for the EU, the UN and the OSCE in central and south-east Asia, central Africa and the Balkans. From 2005-06 he was the Deputy Chief Observer for the EU EOM to the Democratic Republic of Congo and has also worked as election and legal expert for EU EOMs to Mauritania (2007) and Burundi (2005). Eric has master’s degrees in both international politics and management.

Alexandre Castanias, Media Expert (Greece)

Alexandre is a media consultant focusing on elections. He has degrees in communication and PR (Paris), electoral administration (Essex) and media monitoring (Pavia) and lectures at the Ecole Francaise des Attaches de Presse. He has take part in more than twenty missions all over the world, working for the UN, the EU, the OSCE and IFES in the fields of both election assistance and election observation. He has also worked for the EU in Rwanda on human rights and Medecins Sans Frontieres in Burundi on humanitarian affairs.

Anna Owen, Press and Public Outreach Officer (UK)

Anna is a freelance journalist and press officer based in London. She worked as a radio and television reporter for the BBC in Wales from 2000 to 2004 and has since both produced and reported for several different BBC programmes in the UK. She has taken part in thirteen election observation missions, working as press officer for the EU in Kenya (2007-8), long term observer for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in the West Bank and Gaza (2005-06) and the OSCE in Georgia (2004) and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (2004).

Xavier Noc, Operations Expert (France)

Xavier has been involved in international election observation, administration and technical assistance since 1999. He has worked for the EU, UNDP and the OSCE in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans and Latin America. More recently he was contracted by UNDP to be the chief technical adviser for the electoral assistance project in Togo during the 2007 Parliamentary elections.

Franck Balme, Observer Coordinator (France)

Franck has master’s degrees in International Law and Management. He has worked as an expert in election observation and technical assistance with the UN, EU, IFES and the Council of Europe for the last eight years. He was observer coordinator for the EU EOMs to Mauritania (2007) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (2006) and deputy observer coordinator in Nigeria (2003). Franck has also worked for the UN Electoral Assistance Division in East Timor (2001-02), Nepal (2002), Afghanistan (2003-04) and for the out of country voting for the Iraq elections (2005).

Stuart Poucher, Security Expert (UK)

Stuart was commissioned into the British Army in 1972 and left in 1993. He went on to work in Bosnia for the European Community Monitoring Mission and in Kosovo for the OSCE elections department. Since then he has taken part in several election observation missions including Ukraine, Cambodia and Nigeria. In 2004 he was the Head of Region in Peshawar, Pakistan during the out of country registration and voting for Afghan refugees and in 2005 he was Head of Country (UK) for the Iraq elections. From 2005-07, Stuart worked on EU border missions in Gaza, Ukraine and Moldova. This is his third EU EOM as a core team member.