OSCE/ODIHR opens observation mission for early parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan

ASTANA, 17 February 2016 – The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) today formally opened an election observation mission (EOM) for the 20 March early parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan. The mission’s deployment follows an invitation from the authorities of Kazakhstan.

The mission is led by Ambassador Boris Frlec and consists of a core team of 11 experts based in Astana and 28 long-term observers, who will be deployed throughout the country in teams of two, from 23 February. In addition, ODIHR will request that OSCE participating States provide 400 short-term observers. The short-term observers are due to arrive several days before election day.

The mission will assess these elections for their compliance with OSCE commitments and other international obligations and standards for democratic elections, as well as with national legislation. Observers will closely monitor candidate and voter registration, campaign activities, the work of the election administration and relevant government bodies, election-related legislation and its implementation, and the resolution of election-related disputes. As part of the observation, the mission will also monitor the media coverage of the campaign.

In the course of its observation, the mission will meet with representatives from state authorities, political parties and candidates, and with representatives from civil society, the media and the international community.

On election day, observers will monitor the opening of polling stations, voting, the counting of ballots and the tabulation of results. For election day, the OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission will join efforts with delegations from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

The mission will publish one interim report in the course of its work. The day after the elections, a statement of preliminary findings and conclusions will be issued at a press conference. ODIHR will issue a final report on the observation of the entire electoral process approximately eight weeks after the end of the observation mission.

The OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission and the OSCE Programme Office in Astana operate separately and independently under their own mandates.

For further information, please visit https://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/kazakhstan/222541 or contact Ivan Godarsky, Media Analyst, at +7 7172 476 997 (Astana office) or +7 701 035 9940 (Astana mobile) or at ivan.godarsky@odihr.kz.

or

Thomas Rymer, OSCE/ODIHR Spokesperson, at +48 609 522 266 (Warsaw mobile) or thomas.rymer@odihr.pl.