European election monitors to observe UK general elections
April 26th, 2010 - 9:08 pm ICT by BNO NewsWARSAW (BNO NEWS) — The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on Monday announced it opened an election assessment mission for next week’s general elections in the United Kingdom.
The election assessment mission was launched in response to an invitation from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The mission’s deployment was initially delayed due to flight cancellations caused by the volcanic ash cloud that stranded tens of thousands of people across the world.
The mission will be led by Jean-Pierre Kingsley and consists of 10 international elections experts from eight OSCE participating states. Kingsley previously served as the head of Elections Canada, where he received increasing criticism from Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who at times called him “dangerous” and “heavy-handed,” according to CBC News.
Kingsley and his 10 elections experts will assess and report on the overall framework for the conduct of the election. Their work will focus on the legal framework for the election, voter registration and postal voting arrangements, the implementation of newly introduced provisions on election observation, as well as campaign financing and the complaints and appeals process.
As part of the assessment process, the experts will meet with relevant governmental authorities, candidates, political parties, the judiciary, civil society, and the media.
ODIHR will not carry out systematic or comprehensive observation of the voting, counting, or tabulation on election day, but the experts plan to visit a limited number of polling stations across the country to follow procedures.
A final report will be issued about two months after the completion of the election process.
OSCE’s ODIHR previously assessed the 2005 general elections in the United Kingdom, as well as the elections for the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2003.
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