Luis has 11 years of experience on democratization, institution-building and legislative reform in transitional societies, with a specific focus on electoral systems. He has experience in different international organizations (UN, OSCE, EU, IOM) in the Middle East, South-East Asia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Balkans, eastern Europe, Africa and South America. He has held different positions during the implementation of all types of election projects, including election administration, assessments, technical advice and observation missions. He was Deputy Chief Observer in Zambia.

Fotini Rantsiou is a specialist in refugee issues, having worked for more than ten years in conflict and post-conflict societies. She has extensive experience as Election Observer with the European Union and the OSCE in missions in the former Yugoslavia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa. She has also worked for several years for the UN Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA) as Human Rights Officer and with the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) as Operations Support Officer in the West Bank. Before the UN, she worked in aboriginal Australia, Ireland and Greece.

Xabier Meilán holds a postgraduate degree in Political Sciences from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He also holds a master degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as from the School of Journalism UAM/El País. He has been a core team member of the EU EOMs to Ecuador (2002), Guatemala (2003), Ethiopia (2005), Venezuela (2005 and 2006) and Bolivia (2006). He was the chief observer of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Electoral Assessment Mission to Nicaragua (2006) and vice presiding officer of the Media Commission during the 2004 Afghan Presidential Elections.

Florence has postgraduate degrees in law, history and human rights and has wide experience working in the field of elections both as an observer and in technical assistance. She has participated in many observation missions in the Balkans for the OSCE and since 2001 in Africa and Asia with the EU.  Florence also has experience working in the field of human rights as researcher and analyst for IGOs and NGOs. She served as observer coordinator for the EU EOM in Liberia in 2005, in Uganda and in Zambia in 2006.

Miguel Has worked for the United Nations Department of Public Information for 8 years at Headquarters in New York. He has more than 16 years of experience in the field of Logistics including four years in UN Missions in countries as Namibia (UNTAG), Angola (UNAVEN II) Western Sahara (MINURSO) and South Africa. More recently he has participated in European Union Election Observation and Exploratory Missions in countries such as Zimbabwe, Timor Leste 2002, Pakistan, Kenya, Nigeria, Guatemala, Indonesia, Iraq, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Nicaragua and Timor-Leste 2007.

Juan-Pedro Garcia, born in Madrid, Spain, has a comprehensive experience in the field of Security in assorted assignments along his professional career. At home, he has been serving as a professional Guardia Civil in different assignments (Deputy Station Commander, Helicopter pilot, among another). During the last eight years, he has been serving in different international organizations as Security Advisor/Expert such as UNMIBH (Bosnia & Herzegovina 1999-2000) and UNMIK (Kosovo 2000-2004),  IOM-OCV (Islamic Republic of Iran 2005), OSCE/ODIHR (Bosnia & Herzegovina 2006) and European Union Election Observation Mission (Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, West Bank and Gaza). He is also the Director of Operations of the Centre for International Promotion of Security .

Paulo Nogueira is a Portuguese journalist who has spent most of his 25 year-long career in Asia, covering in particular the Timor-Leste issue since 1985. After a first visit to Dili in 1994, he became the first-ever Portuguese correspondent to Indonesia and Timor-Leste in January 1999, when he opened a Lusa News Agency office in Jakarta. From 2000 to 2002, he was Press Attaché of the Portuguese Embassy in Dili and one of his tasks was to work on Timorese media development. He has covered elections in Portugal, Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Macau, and was Electoral Observer to the Timor-Leste Presidential Election in 2002.