By Easwaran Rutnam With elections due later this year, a delegation from the European Union (EU) headquarters in Brussels is scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka this week on a fact-finding mission, The Sunday Morning learnt. It is learnt that the delegation will have talks with key stakeholders in Sri Lanka to decide if the EU should deploy election monitors in the country in the event the Government invites the EU to observe the elections. The Sunday Morning learnt that two representatives of the EU headquarters in Brussels and three independent experts with election/legal, logistics, and security expertise will be in Sri Lanka from 5 to 13 August. They would look to use the visit to collect factual information to assess whether a EU Election Observation Mission (EOM) for the upcoming presidential elections in Sri Lanka would be useful, advisable, and feasible. The EU EOM has observed past elections in Sri Lanka on the invitation of the Sri Lankan Government. The last presidential election in 2015 was seen as mostly free and fair and saw a smooth transition of power from then President Mahinda Rajapaksa to President Maithripala Sirisena. The election this year is expected to be hotly contested with speculation that former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa will be the presidential candidate of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and the United National Party (UNP) fielding a candidate on behalf of its new alliance.