The SADC Electoral Observer Mission (SEOM) to the 2019 elections in Botswana has announced in its pre-election assessment on Monday in Gaborone, the capital city, that the southern African country is ready to hold the general elections on October 23 as scheduled.

Making the announcement during the launch of the observer mission, head of the SEOM Sibusiso Moyo said in consistent with the revised SADC principles and guidelines governing democratic elections, the deployment of the SEOM was preceded by a pre-election assessment and goodwill mission of the SADC Advisory Council (SEAC) from August 18-25.

He said the SEAC mission interacted with a number of stakeholders and issues raised and findings will be analyzed together with the SEOM observations in the pre-election phase as well as during the elections phase.

Moyo said the observer mission will assess the conduct of the elections against a set of central principles stipulated in the revised SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections.

The observer mission consists of 55 personnel from 11 SADC member states, who will be deployed to the 10 administrative districts of Botswana.

"As we launch the SEOM our observations will focus on the pre and post-elections periods, which include the campaigns, the voting day and the process of the counting of the ballot papers," he said.

This phase will continue until the eve of the elections while the election observation will take place on election day and post-election phase will start immediately after elections.