Mission: Possible! The OSCE facilitates voting in Kosovo
“You really think we can do this?”
“We're going to do it.”
The smell of fresh ink from the OSCE posters displaying voter information filled the air of the high school in the central Kosovo village of Donja Gušterica/Gushtericë e Ulët on 6 May. People of all ages consulted the posters to find their polling station, lined up patiently and then proceeded to cast their votes.
Only five days earlier, under an understanding reached by all relevant local and international actors, the OSCE Mission in Kosovo had been tasked to facilitate balloting for over 109,000 voters eligible to vote in the Serbian presidential and parliamentary elections.
“Our task evolved around a very basic but an important concept and a democratic right. The very purpose of our exercise was to enable eligible voters in Kosovo to cast their ballots in the Serbian presidential and parliamentary elections - nothing more and nothing less,” said Ambassador Werner Almhofer, Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, who guided the operation.
This understanding was the result of a long series of consultations led personally by the Chairperson-in-Office, Ireland's Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore, and the Secretary General, Lamberto Zannier, which included trips to the region and led to a breakthrough in finding common ground for an OSCE voting facilitation operation in Kosovo. It was a rare case of unanimity among different stakeholders with whom the OSCE Mission in Kosovo has built trust and confidence by implementing its programmes and activities throughout the years. Institutions in Belgrade and Prishtinë/Priština as well as the European Union, the United Nations, NATO and foreign governments all welcomed the understanding and expressed appreciation for the role being assumed by the OSCE.
I commend the restraint shown by all parties, which allowed for a peaceful conduct of the OSCE-run balloting facilitation.
An operation that would normally involve months of preparation had to be completed at record speed – a challenge that would involve not just the collective efforts of the entire OSCE Mission in Kosovo, but would pull in resources from OSCE field operations across South-Eastern Europe.
The logistical challenges involved securely transporting to Kosovo all the election materials including the voter list, ballots, ballot boxes and reconciliation forms, running a voter information campaign, setting up and staffing 90 polling stations across Kosovo, and then returning all the election materials to the Serbian Republican Election Commission, for it to count ballots in Raška and Vranje without the OSCE’s involvement.
As meetings and conference calls with the OSCE headquarters in Vienna were held around the clock and working hours doubled, plans took shape and the operation started to unfold in record time.
“The level of commitment, hard work and participation of all the neighboring OSCE missions in the Balkans was truly impressive. We were given five days to recruit and assign over 500 staff, train personnel, rent trucks and buses, plan convoys, book hotel reservations and make other necessary procurements, and all of that with the first day, 1 May, being a major public holiday,” said Jon Brown, the Mission in Kosovo’s Head of Administration and Finance.
A voter information campaign was developed in less than 24 hours, which included producing 112 different posters and 22 different leaflets and distributing them across Kosovo. A TV spot was produced overnight and went on air the next morning on five different channels.
Meanwhile, the Mission and its field offices resembled human anthills. While OSCE teams were being trained for the balloting, others were out in the field disseminating information and setting up the polling stations.
On election day, some 500 staff were deployed to the field, including staff of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, 300 short-term local hires and 100 OSCE staff who came to assist with the operation from other OSCE field operations in South-Eastern Europe as well as the OSCE Secretariat.
For Ambassador Fletcher M. Burton, Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, which supported the operation, “the effort was successful for two main reasons: first, the concept was right – the OSCE helped to bring about an understanding that enjoyed broad political support, and second, the execution was strong.”
Election day passed in an orderly and peaceful manner, without a single reported incident – only a few polling stations opened with a slight delay, at 8:15 as opposed to 7:00.
In the early hours of Monday, 7 May, the sealed ballot boxes were handed over to the Serbian Republican Election Commission as planned.
Later that morning, Mission staff reported for work as usual. “I’m ready for another election,” Deputy Head of Mission Edward Joseph said entering the headquarters.
Two days later, the Serbian Republican Election Commission confirmed that a second round would be held for the run-off in the presidential election, on 20 May.
This time, the aim was to do even better – taking account of lessons learned and making adjustments where necessary. The run-off went even more smoothly than the first round: polling stations Kosovo-wide opened on time, the balloting was orderly, no incidents were reported and the polling centres were closed and materials packed, on the road and out of Kosovo just after midnight.
The OSCE convoys with ballots reached the Serbian Republican Election Commission in Raška and Vranje in the early hours of 21 May, marking the end of a challenging but successful operation.
In a statement issued after voting concluded, the Chairperson-in-Office welcomed the peaceful and orderly voting in Kosovo for the second round of the Serbian presidential election of 20 May. Commenting on the role played by the OSCE in this process he added, “The OSCE has once again demonstrated its ability to rise to meet new challenges, engage all relevant actors and successfully conduct a demanding operation in a very tight timeframe.”