7 (D) Election Administration The way elections are administered is very important if any legitimacy and credibility is to be derived from the electoral process. A lot of aspects on election administration have to be scrutinised through a gender perspective. I will start with the composition of the electoral management body. (1) Composition of the EMB Election observers should take note of the composition of the electoral management body’s gender representation. There should be efforts to establish how many women form the highest decision-making structures of the EMB. The recent elections in Sierra Leone have proven how effective a female-headed EMB could be. Observers should therefore analyse the composition of the EMB and make inferences as to whether its composition have an effective on women participation in the whole electoral process. (2) Voter registration Voter registration should be premised on the principles of inclusiveness, fairness and comprehensiveness. It should be carried out in ways that should take into account the special needs of different social groups, women included. Election observers should be able to judge whether the process has been mooted, structured and implemented with the needs of women in mind. As we have advocated in our articles in the local media, voter registration should be undertaken after prior consultative meetings with different social groups to cater for their special needs in the process and these group viewpoints should, undoubtebly, incoporate the views of women. Registration centre distribution, operational schedules and opening times should all be operationalised with due cognisance of the special needs of pregnant women and those women rendered immobile by special social obligations like childcare. It is important therefore, that special arrangements should be put in place to cater for women in those categories. Issues like door-to-door voter registration to cater for these women should be some of the things that observer missions should lobby EMBs to take into consideration.