Raphaël Pouyé, Deputy Chief Observer (France)

Raphaël Pouyé has been working in the field of post-conflict elections and governance reform since 1999. He was field coordinator in electoral assistance projects with UN peace operations in Timor Leste and Burundi. In addition, he took part in several observation missions with the OSCE, the UN and the EU, including Mozambique in 2003. A post-conflict scholar, he regularly contributes academic pieces on peacekeeping and institution building and has been a consultant for the Foreign Affairs Ministry and Defense Ministry in France. He has spent most of the past five years working in Sub-Saharan Africa, including two years in the Democratic Republic of Congo as political expert in the EU Elections observation mission and consultant on security sector reform. Most recently, he was the political advisor to the largest European Union military operation, EUFOR Tchad-RCA, based in N’Djamena.

Tania Marques, Legal and Elections Expert (Portugal)

Tania Marques holds a Master of Laws in International Peace Support Operations from the National University of Ireland and studied International Relations at the Universidade  Lusíada, in Portugal. She also has been awarded certificates in Human Rights Law, Conflict Analysis and Legal Analysis of Electoral Processes. Tania has been involved in election observation for the past three years and has participated in several EU election observation missions in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Christian Kapfensteiner, Political Expert (Austria)

Christian Kapfensteiner has an M.A in International Relations & Diplomacy. He has worked in Mozambique for about 5 years. He worked in a voter education and journalist training program around the elections of 2003 and 2004 and he has been working in a decentralization and civil society support program in central Mozambique. Christian did his first EOMs for the EU in 2006 and has since been LTO in countries as diverse as Mexico, Yemen or Bangladesh.

Javier Gutiérrez, Media Analyst (Spain)

As journalist, Javier Gutiérrez has more than 12 years of experience in different Spanish media (newspapers, radio and TV). He started to work for the European Union in 2002, acting for the first time as Media Analyst and Press Officer in the EU-EOM to Sierra Leone. Since then he has carried out the same possitions in 11 more missions, mainly in Africa and Central America. He has also participated in several UN missions (Guatemala, East Timor, Sierra Leone, United Arabic Emirates and Nepal), dealing with different positions on Public Information and Electoral Technical Assistance fields.

Fernanda Lopes, Press Officer (Portugal)

Fernanda Lopes main field of studies is Communication and latter studied International Development and   Cooperation. She has worked in the area of electoral technical assistance within UN missions and UNDP, mainly in the field of Civic Education, Training and Public Information, in East-Timor, Indonesia, Afghanistan and Nepal.  She has participated in EUEOM as Long Term Observer , in Bolivia and Nicaragua. She is also a BRIDGE facilitator.

Alexander Gray, Observers Coordinator (United Kingdom)

Alexander Gray has participated in several election observation missions with the EU, OSCE and OAS, both as an observer and as a Core Team member. His most recent EU EOMs include Lebanon, Bolivia, Guinea Bissau, Angola and Kenya. Along with a PhD in Peace and Development Studies he is trained to the post-doctoral level with professional capacity in issues of democratisation, human rights, civil society and international migrations. Alex is specialised in civil society-state relations and has conducted substantive fieldwork and NGO programming across Latin America and Africa since 1999. Alex has authored several publications in the area of democracy and good governance.

Izabela Kryjom, Deputy Observers Coordinator (Poland)

Izabela Kryjom has participated in numerous EU and OSCE election observation missions as long and short term observer. Her election observation missions include Angola, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Kosovo, Nicaragua, Nigeria and Venezuela. She is post-graduate in Developing Countries Studies, Latin American Studies and Masters in law.

Andreu Solà-Martin, Coordinator with International Actors (Spain)

Andreu Solà has worked in EU election observation missions since 2006 as a long term observer including Mexico, Sierra Leone, Angola, Malawi and Ghana. Andreu has conducted research on the role of international organisations in conflict resolution and democratisation in West Africa. Andreu has a PhD and he lectured in departments of political science in Spain and United Kingdom. He has published some papers in academic journals and a couple of books.