A Pacific Islands Forum team is among the observers for the Bougainville elections that got underway this morning.
The poll in the autonomous Papua New Guinea region lasts for two weeks.
The Forum team is headed by Fiji's election supervisor Mohammed Saneem and includes his Vanuatu counterpart, John Killion Taleo.
Other monitors have come from New Zealand, Australia, Japan, France and the United Kingdom.
Bougainvilleans go to the polls this week. Photo: AFP