Antonio Reis, Deputy Chief Observer ( Portugal)

Tony Reis has an extensive experience in election observation, conflict resolution and projects in the area of promotion and consolidation of democracy.

Since 1990, he has been involved in almost 40 observation missions of electoral processes in the Americas, Middle East, Africa and Asia, most of them as Chief of Mission (and in some missions doing what he considers one of the most interesting activities in observation: quick-counts), working for the European Union (EU), United Nations (UN) and the Organization of American States (OAS). As a former Special Senior Advisor to the Secretary-General of the OAS, he participated in several high-level negotiations in Panama and Nicaragua.

He was also the head of the Special Mission which brokered the peace accord in the civil conflict in Suriname and disarmed the illegally armed groups. Tony also worked for the World Bank in Washington, DC, and as a journalist for Reuters news agency in several countries.

Lurdes Carneiro de Sousa, Country Political Expert

Lurdes Carneiro de Sousa is political scientist and international consultant dealing with elections since 1999. She studied Political Science and
International Law in Paris and diplomatic studies in Lisbon. She has been working
with the European Union Observation as an observer in several countries and namely Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Cambodia, Indonesia, Madagascar.

Before that she worked in a diplomatic mission in Mozambique and in Directorate for Development (ACP countries) in the European Commission in Brussels. In Lisbon she works as a political researcher and is the author of various publications relating to elections and political analysis. She has an extensive knowledge of Guinea Bissau where she has observed presidential election 1999-2000 and has prepared an evaluation report for the European Commission delegation on the 2004 legislative election. As election expert she took part to the Exploratory Mission for the Presidential Election in Bissau.

Jose Antonio De Gabriel Perez , Legal and Election Expert ( Spain)

Jose Antonio is a lawyer and political scientist working mainly as an international consultant in the fields of elections, democratization processes and international politics. He studied in Paris and Madrid, where he became assistant professor of Democratic Theory and Comparative Politics. Invited as a visiting research fellow by the Universities of Georgetown (Wash. DC), New School for Social Research (NY) and Oxford (U.K), he is the author of various publications on Democracy and International Politics. In the field of International Public Law, Jose Antonio worked as a consultant for the Legal Standard Section of UNESCO in Paris. Involved in EU and OSCE election observation and exploratory missions since 1996, he has observed elections in countries like Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Kenya, Azerbaijan, Indonesia or West Bank and Gaza. Jose Antonio also regularly teaches in seminars on election observation and democratization processes organised by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Lucia Scotton, Media Expert (Italy)
Lucia Scotton is a researcher at the Osservatorio di Pavia, an institute of research and analysis on media in Italy. She has been a member of the executive board of the Osservatorio from 2001 to 2004 and she is involved in communication surveys and training activities. Since 1999, she has been working, as a media expert for international organizations such as OSCE, the Council of Europe and the UE in a number of election observation missions, including Kosovo (2001 and 2000), Latvia(2002), Rwanda (2003), Georgia (2003 and 2004), Uzbekistan (1999 and 2004) and Macedonia (2005). She attended the Election Administration Certificate course in Paris.

Carlo Pappalardo, LTO Coordinator ( Italy)

Carlo Pappalardo has experience in e lection observation with OSCE/ODIHR in ex-Yugoslavia and also observed as STO and LTO with the EU in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Guatemala, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and others . In 2004 he was LTO Coordinator for the EOM in Mozambique.

Between 1999 and 2000 he served as Election Officer with OSCE in Kosovo.

Before starting election observation he used to work and co-operate with Italian NGOs and humanitarian associations in the Balkans and in South and Central America.

Salvador Giné Lacassa, Security Expert ( Spain)

Salvador Giné currently serves as an Assistant Officer within the Catalan Police Force. He has been the Chief of Public Safety of a Catalan Police Region for ten years. He has studied International Police Cooperation, Crisis Management and Protection for Peacekeeping Officers in the United States, Germany and Sweden. He holds a degree in Geography and Criminology.

Xavier Noc, Senior Operations Expert (France)
Xavier Noc has worked for many years in humanitarian operations worldwide . Since 1999, he has been involved in the field of elections as an observer, operations expert or a coordinator for international organi s ations such as the United Nation Development Program me , OSCE , the E U and the International Foundation for Electoral System s (IFES) . His work has taken him to elections in Nigeria ( 1999 and 2003 ) , Indonesia ( 1999 ) , East Timor ( 1999 ) , Kosovo ( 2000-20001 ) , Bangladesh ( 2001 ), Sri Lanka ( 2001 ) , Congo ( 2002 ) , Ecuador ( 2002 ) and Guatemala ( 2003 ) . He was the Deputy Head of Mission in the Iran -based O ut- of-C ountry Registration and Voting project for Afghan citizens run by the International Organisation for Migration for the 2004 presidential election in Afghanistan.