BY: MARVIN CATO | HGP NIGHTLY NEWS |
President Irfaan Ali on Wednesday unleashed a fiery rebuttal to the European Union Election Observer Mission’s final report on the 2025 General and Regional Elections, dismissing its key findings as baseless, biased, and influenced by partisan actors.
The EU mission’s report highlighted concerns about an “uneven playing field,” citing alleged advantages of incumbency, the use of state resources, and differential access to media—claims the President said were “ridiculous” and lacked factual evidence.
“The reports speak about uneven playing field and undue advantage by incumbency, which I find ridiculous to say the least,”
President Ali stated, visibly angered.
The President argued that the EU’s conclusions relied heavily on complaints from political stakeholders rather than verified facts.
“This comment is not based on any facts. It is based primarily on complaints by political participants,”
he said.
Claims of Partisan Influence
President Ali further accused the EU mission of being compromised by individuals with ties to the political opposition.
“It is important in report writing to understand who is writing the reports and who is influencing them,”
Ali insisted, questioning the impartiality of locally hired EU support staff.
He said some of those engaged by the mission had well-known political affiliations, which he believes tainted the report’s objectivity.
State Resources Allegation Rejected
The EU mission had cited the alleged use of state vehicles in Indigenous regions during the campaign period as evidence of abuse of incumbency.
President Ali sharply rejected the claim.
“We made it very clear that in any system there are disadvantages to incumbency and advantages to incumbency,”
he noted, stopping just short of labeling the EU’s observation as false.
While the mission commended Election Day itself as peaceful and generally well-administered, it criticized the broader electoral environment, noting what it described as domination and control by the incumbent administration across multiple aspects of the process.
President Ali, however, maintained that the criticisms were neither grounded in evidence nor reflective of the actual electoral environment.
