Request for EU Election Monitors

Your Excellency, President of the European Comission

On behalf of the Partido da Nova Democracia (PND), Portugal, I am writing to bring to your attention the continued violation of election laws in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, Portugal.

Democracy in Madeira is jeopardized; the Regional President, Alberto João Cardoso Gonçalves Jardim, has enjoyed 32 (thirty two) consecutive years in absolute power.

Elections in the Autonomous Region of Madeira are increasingly fraught with allegations of intimidation of opposition candidates, voter intimidation, vote-rigging and usage of state means by the ruling party, Partido Social Democrata (PSD), to carry out its election campaigns.

Of these, the most visible and outrageous is the use of state means for political propaganda and in particular the violation of the rule of impartiality, which, as one knows, stipulates that once an election date is set, all political office-holders, acting in official capacity, are beholden to observe strict impartiality towards all candidatures.

During the 2009 Municipal and Legislative Elections, President Alberto João Jardim held 70 (seventy) official inauguration ceremonies, during which he proffered highly chauvinist, defamatory and inflammatory speeches, praising his own government and slating the opposition parties. For your information, I have included a 10 minutes DVD, which shows footage of these speeches.

As you will see, the Regional President of Madeira, Alberto João Jardim, labels opposition parties ‘fascists’, ‘colonialists’, ‘traitors’, ‘saboteurs’, ‘mafias’, ‘enemies of democracy’, ‘enemies of progress’ and so on.

State entities have taken no action to curb these abuses: the National Commission of Elections has remained silent on the matter, and the Public Prosecutor's office allowed denunciations of election crimes to prescribe, without bringing charges.

In view of the European Union's commitment to uphold and spread high standards of democracy and good-governance throughout the globe, and of its long experience in monitoring elections, we hereby make an unusual request to the European Commission to consider and approve an EU Election-monitoring mission to a region within the EU, namely the Autonomous Region of Madeira, to cover the election and pre-election period for the Regional Legislative Elections, due to be held in the fall of 2011.

Yours sincerely,

Eduardo Welsh,

Director of the Partido da Nova Democracia