The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) today formally opened an election observation mission for the November 30 in parliamentary elections in Moldova The mission is led by Ambassador Jan Petersen and consists of 11 experts based in Chisinau and 22 long-term observers to be deployed across the country, who will arrive in Moldova next week, IPN reports.
In addition, ODIHR will request 200 short-term observers to monitor proceedings on election day. The elections will be also overseen by observers on behalf of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
“The mission will assess the electoral process for compliance with OSCE commitments and other international standards for democratic elections, as well as with national legislation. Observers will monitor the legislative framework and its implementation, the work of the election administration and relevant government bodies, campaign activities, media coverage and the resolution of election disputes,” Ambassador Jan Petersen said in a news conference.
“Our role is to monitor and report on the elections, not to intervene somehow. We are neither electoral police, not electoral supervisors. We are not interested in the election outcome. We want these elections to be held transparency and in compliance with the OSCE commitments: equality, justice, partiality, and confidentiality,” said the head of the OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission.
Jan Petersen said the day after the elections, the mission will issue a statement of preliminary findings and conclusions. A final report on the observation of the entire electoral process will be issued approximately two months after the end of the electoral process. Besides the monitoring results, the report will also contain recommendations for improving the electoral process and an assessment of the implementation of the previous commitments.
This autumn’s legislative elections will be the 11th monitored by the OSCE/ODIHR, which established cooperation relations with Moldova in 1996. The OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission and the office of the OSCE Mission to Moldova operate separately under their specific mandates.
