From former American president Jimmy Carter to the son of former Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, one and all are coming to observe the constituent assembly elections.

The Election Commission has permitted 28 international and 148 national organisations to monitor the elections. Seven hundred observers from international organisations and 100,000 from national organisations will be deployed during the polls.

The EC has already handed out 21,000 identity cards to monitors and is fast issuing more. This time there will be observers at every polling station.

A delegation from the European Union, Australian and Malaysian chief election commissioners, the South Asia Foundation's Sita Ram Yechuri and five Indian MPs will be present during elections.

The EU group has already arrived. Composed of nine experts and led by MEP (member of European Parliament) Jan Mulder, the group will be observing polls in 62 districts. The European Union sent out a press release last Monday, according to which 122 people from 22 European countries, including Norway and Switzerland who are EU members, will be present in the group. Seventy of the team are temporary monitors. They will work from 1 April, the coming Tuesday, and will be present during voting and vote counting.