Election observation amongst OSCE member states has developed since the 1990s. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) itself is more than twenty years younger than me.
In the early 1970s there was a détente in the Cold War leading to the establishment of the Conference on Security and Co-operation (CSCE) in Europe as a multilateral forum for dialogue and negotiation between East and West. The Helsinki Final Act, signed in 1975, was full of good intentions not all of which could be implemented until the 1990s. In 1994, in Budapest, CSCE’s name was changed to OSCE. There are 57 member states that extend from Vancouver to Vladivostok; the United States and Canada in the west and Russia and Mongolia in the east.
The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) is the human rights arm of OSCE that helps member states build and consolidate democratic institutions. EOMs are its most visible activity although it does much more to promote equal, fair and democratic governance. Its five areas are: democratisation, human rights, elections, tolerance/non-discrimination and Roma/Sindhi issues.
ODIHR has its headquarters in Warsaw with a staff of about 150 and an annual budget of Euros 15 million. There are some 16 staff in the election section who organise about 20 election missions a year. They have been doing this since 1996 and have deployed more than 40,000 observers. Missions vary from an EOM (this is what I’m part of in Moldova), to a Limited Election Observation Mission, to an Election Assessment Mission or, the lightest touch, a deployment of Expert Teams. (An Expert Team was deployed to the UK for the 2017 General Election.) The ODIHR sends a Needs Assessment Mission to determine whether an election should be observed and if so what scope of activity should be conducted.
The underlying commitments and principles for democratic elections are that they should be periodic, genuine, free, fair, universal, equal, secret and honest. Observation of an election on polling day is just one piece in the role of an EOM. It is part of a cycle including the pre-election period, election period and post-election period. Its effectiveness depends on the political will of the state to implement the law in an impartial, transparent and accountable manner.
To be continued.