Short-term observers

Every standard election observation mission will have anywhere from a hundred to a thousand short-term observers (STOs), offered to the election observation mission by OSCE participating States.

They arrive several days before voting; are given a comprehensive briefing about their role, responsibilities, and expectations; and leave a day or two after voting. Their job is to observe the polling, counting and tabulation procedures, and to report their findings.

Observers visit, on average, about ten polling stations on election day, where they fill out forms (each form contains general questions, as well as questions related to specific issues that are important for that particular election) to gather detailed information about each polling station.

Each form contributes to the overall statistical profile of how polling-station procedures are being conducted throughout the country, which the core team analyses and uses to draw conclusions about the election day process. This permits the observation mission to determine whether irregularities, when they occur, are of an isolated nature or are systematic.

"The most important function of an STO is to provide data from polling stations for the long-term observers and core team to analyse and interpret," says Jakob Preuss, a German citizen who has been both a long- and short-term observer on a number of ODIHR missions.

"But there is also a symbolic element to STOs, who represent the idea of the international community in the eyes of the host country."