Duma Elections to Get Limited Monitoring
It appears as if OSCE’s efforts to provide transparent and complete monitoring of Russia’s Dec. 2 Duma elections may come up short.
The AP has more on this developing story . . .
The United States on Thursday criticized Russian proposals that would curtail the activities of international election monitors.
The proposals, dated Sept. 18, were distributed to delegations of the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe last month.
Among other things, they would limit election monitoring missions to no more than 50 people and would restrict missions from “making any public assessments of the election environment in the host country” before election results are officially announced, according to a copy of the proposals.
Backed by Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the proposals are directed at the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights that deploys thousands of long-term and short-term observers to monitor elections throughout the 56-member OSCE region.
Under its current mode of operating, ODIHR issues a preliminary statement shortly after election day, followed by a final election report with recommendations within about six weeks after completion of the electoral process.
Under the proposal, the procedure for preparing and publishing the reports would be determined by a separate decision by the OSCE’s Permanent Council.
