Mr de Gabriel has been participating in election observation missions of the EU, OSCE and United Nations in more than twenty counties since 1996. He holds a degree in law and political science and has worked as a professor of political science in several universities in Spain, the UK and the US.

He has collaborated in election observation training programmes for Members of Parliament and observers of the Escuela Diplomática, Madrid. He has also been working as consultant for UNESCO and for UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) on the issues of multilateral treaties and electoral legislation reform-projects. José Antonio is the author of several publications on the Theory of Democracy.

Mr Luis Hermosilla has a law degree from the University of Complutense in Madrid, Spain and an MBA from the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid.  He is an expert in negotiation and conflict resolution. He has participated in Election Observations Missions in Lebanon (2005), Mexico (2006) and Peru in 2001 and 2006.

Mr Blanck has a degree in law and has been teaching criminal law for 28 years. His first electoral observation mission was in 1989 and since 1996 he has spent, on average, six months a year on electionmissions in many different positions, mainly in Africa and the Balkans.

He has acted as a Short-Term Observer, Long-Term Observer, International Trainer, Deputy Senior Election Officer, Field Operations Director, Election Expert and Legal Expert, working for the UN, OSCE/ODIHR, the European Union and the Council of Europe

Mr Alexander Gray has participated in several election observation missions with the EU, OSCE and OAS. His most recent EU EOMs include Bolivia, Guinea Bissau, Angola, Kenya, Guatemala and Nigeria. 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.

Mr de Bard has worked for more than fifteen years in the elections field, mostly with the United Nations, the OSCE and the European Commission. He has held senior political and electoral posts  in numerous war-torn and post-conflict countries including the Balkans, the Caribbean and Africa. He was the Head/Acting Head of the MONUC Liaison Office in Uganda (2002-2004) at a critical stage of the UN Mission operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

De Bard has studied a various range of disciplines mostly with French higher education institutions such as the University of Lyon, the Paris Institute of Political Sciences, the Sorbonne and Paris Dauphine University. He holds three post-graduate degrees - in European and Legal Affairs, New Public Management and Political Economy. He was also a research scholar at Duke University where he carried out his doctoral studies in international economics.

Ms Marchese works as researcher at the Osservatorio di Pavia where she is involved in research related to media studies, political and social communication, training and teaching activities both at national and international level.

Since 2001, she has been working as media expert for international organisations, Italian institutions and non-governmental organisations. She has been a media analyst in a number of election observation and assessment missions for OSCE/ODIHR and also for the EUEOM to Ghana in 2008.

Ms Haughey is an experienced news reporter and media consultant. She was a specialist correspondent for the Irish Times newspaper in Dublin for several years and also reported from the Middle East from 2004 to 2008.

She has been a press officer for five European Union Election Observation Missions and has been involved in technical assistance projects in Africa. She holds a Masters degree in journalism from Dublin City University and a law degree from Queen’s University in Belfast.

Ms Ioannou has a degree in law and a postgraduate degree in human rights and international law. She has wide experience of working in the field of election observation and technical assistance, having taken part in more than thirty missions with the OSCE in the Balkans and Eastern Europe and with the EU in Africa and Asia.

Most recently, she worked as a long-term observer for the EU EOMs to Nepal and as Deputy Observer Coordinator in Kenya and Cambodia. During the USA General Elections (2008), she was the LTO Coordinator for the OSCE/ODIHR Limited Election Observation Mission to the United States.

Mr Mariusz Wojtan holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and International Relations. He works at the Institute for International Studies in Wroclaw, specialisng in democratisation and conflict resolution. Since 2004 he has been involved in election observation activities working with EU and OSCE, most recently in Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Nepal and Ghana.