HL Deb 14 June 1999 vol 602 cc1-2WA
Lord Avebury

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What national elections will be held or have been held in the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe region during 1999; what is the OSCE involvement in the preparation, observation or monitoring of the election; and where there was or is to be no involvement, whether they will give the OSCE's reasons. [HL2657]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean)

Details on national elections which have been held or are to be held in 1999 in the OSCE area can be found on the website of the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) at www.ifes.org.

The OSCE Office for Democratic ',Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has carried out election observation missions for the Estonian Parliamentary Election (7 March), Slovak Presidential Election (15 and 29 May) and Armenian Parliamentary Election (30 May). ODIHR also sent a technical assessment mission to the Kazakh Presidential Election (10 January).

The tentative ODIHR election observation schedule for 1999 also foresees election observation missions being mounted for the FYROM Presidential Election (September — date to be confirmed), Ukrainian Presidential Election (31 October), Kazakh Parliamentary Election (October — date to be confirmed), Georgian Parliamentary Election (autumn — date to be confirmed), Turkmenistan Parliamentary Election (12 December), Russian Federation Parliamentary Election (19 December) and Croatian Parliamentary election (end of year — date to be confirmed).

ODIHR informs us that elections included in its tentative election observation schedule and elections already observed this year represent those to which the OSCE attaches the greatest priority. These are generally elections in emerging democracies in the OSCE area.

All ODIHR election observation exercises begin with a needs assessment mission. This normally takes place several months before an election. It will assess the extent, needs and context of the observation and should serve to establish an early dialogue with the national electoral authorities and other institutions involved in the election process. In the case of the Kazakh presidential election, the needs assessment mission judged that the electoral process was so flawed that the election did not warrant a full observation mission. Because of this, only a technical assessment mission was sent.

An ODIHR election observation mission proper consists of core team members (head of mission, legal expert etc.), long-term observers and short-term observers. Long-term observers are dispatched around two months prior to an election. They consider the various stages of the election cycle, from the registration of voters and the commencement of the election campaign, to the final voting, counting and verification procedures, the processing of complaints and the resolution of disputes. Short-term observers normally arrive shortly before election day and are deployed to provide a broad presence throughout the country on election day.

A preliminary post-election statement is issued 24 to 48 hours after the election. This provides a preliminary assessment of whether OSCE commitments were upheld and how well the domestic law and regulations were implemented. The final report, issued in slower time, reflects detailed and cumulative findings of both the long-term observers and the short-term observers. It gives the OSCE's final conclusions on whether the election measured up to OSCE commitments (in particular, those included in the Copenhagen Document 1990) and on the domestic legal framework and its implementation. The report also contains recommendations for future improvements in the election process.