Observers

The catch-all term observers covers a wide range of individuals with different professional specializations.

A standard ODIHR election observation mission involves several different groups, each of which plays a distinct, though interrelated, role in the overall work of a mission. They include:

• The mission core team, which includes the Head and Deputy Head of mission; professional analysts with experience in the areas of media analysis, electoral systems, political issues, law, and women's and national minority issues; logisticians, statisticians, and finance officers;
• Long-term observers, who are deployed to regional centres throughout the country six to eight weeks before election day;
• Short-term observers, who arrive several days before voting and leave a day or two after voting;
• Parliamentarians, who join the short-term observers for election day observation, representing bodies such as the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and the European Parliament. The OSCE Chairman-in-Office regularly designates a senior member of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly to be a Special Co-ordinator to lead the short-term observers for a particular election, and this person works closely with the ODIHR Head of Mission;
• National support staff, including administrative assistants; logistics assistants; assistants for each member of the core team, who usually have some expertise in the relevant area; translators and drivers.

While the members of the core team are professionals who are contracted by the ODIHR based on their expertise, the long- and short-term observers are offered by the 55 OSCE participating States, with the exception of the country where the election is being held.

In 2001, the ODIHR established a voluntary fund for the diversification of observation missions to finance the participation of additional observers. This fund has been instrumental in enhancing representation of election observers from Central and Eastern Europe, South-Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia.