Kosovo election to be heavily monitored
Kosovo goes to the polls on Saturday, 17 November 2001. (Lubomir Kotek/OSCE) Photo details
PRISTINA, 15 November 2001 (OSCE) - With almost 13,000 domestic monitors accredited to observe proceedings in Saturday's election, the OSCE Mission in Kosovo believes the combination of international observers, domestic observers and media will make this one of the most heavily monitored elections organized in the region.
The OSCE Election Department received requests for accreditation for 969 people, who wanted to monitor the poll under the banner of the Belgrade Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CESID). Of these requests only seven were turned down - two because they were duplicate applications and five were rejected because the individual was not registered to vote in Kosovo.
These monitors can watch many stages of the process - from the activities in the Polling Stations through to the Counting and Results Centre.
The monitors apply to work in a specific municipality - and only a limited number of applications were received for Kosovo municipalities. These did not include Gjilan/Gnjilane, Viti/Vitina, Prizren and Strpce.
International and domestic observer groups have monitored a demonstration of the ballot counting at the Count and Results Centre on Thursday. Although CESID was not able to give enough notification for security escorts for all their monitors, one CESID observer was there.
But work has been going on for some time to arrange secure transport for Kosovo Serbian monitors to get to the centre to observe the proceedings round the clock once counting has begun on Saturday evening.
There are nine domestic observer organizations - three of which are from the majority community. Some of these observer organizations represent small communities and have only accredited a handful of people and will be working in specific locations while others will be working across community boundaries. In addition political entities can and have accredited observers.
The OSCE is also pleased to see that the Council of Europe will have 200 monitors across the region on Election Day.
The OSCE Election Department received requests for accreditation for 969 people, who wanted to monitor the poll under the banner of the Belgrade Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CESID). Of these requests only seven were turned down - two because they were duplicate applications and five were rejected because the individual was not registered to vote in Kosovo.
These monitors can watch many stages of the process - from the activities in the Polling Stations through to the Counting and Results Centre.
The monitors apply to work in a specific municipality - and only a limited number of applications were received for Kosovo municipalities. These did not include Gjilan/Gnjilane, Viti/Vitina, Prizren and Strpce.
International and domestic observer groups have monitored a demonstration of the ballot counting at the Count and Results Centre on Thursday. Although CESID was not able to give enough notification for security escorts for all their monitors, one CESID observer was there.
But work has been going on for some time to arrange secure transport for Kosovo Serbian monitors to get to the centre to observe the proceedings round the clock once counting has begun on Saturday evening.
There are nine domestic observer organizations - three of which are from the majority community. Some of these observer organizations represent small communities and have only accredited a handful of people and will be working in specific locations while others will be working across community boundaries. In addition political entities can and have accredited observers.
The OSCE is also pleased to see that the Council of Europe will have 200 monitors across the region on Election Day.