Deciding where to observe

ODIHR maintains a rolling calendar to identify upcoming elections throughout the OSCE region. There are, however, many elections in any given year at the national level and below, and ODIHR has to determine which elections it will observe.

In the 1990s, ODIHR monitored elections in the states facing the immediate challenges of democratic transition after 1989.

New challenges

While ODIHR continues to regularly observe elections in OSCE states emerging from a non-democratic past, it has also begun to focus its attention on electoral challenges in longer-established democracies.

For example, the introduction of new voting technologies poses potential challenges for transparency and accountability in any country where such technologies are being used or considered.

Long-standing democracies tend to give a priority to the principle of enfranchisement, which is sometimes achieved through absentee, early, or postal voting, and these are all aspects of an election process that need to be regulated carefully in order to ensure secrecy of the vote and thus full confidence in the process.

Election assessment missions

ODIHR has attempted to address such issues by deploying assessment missions to longer-established democracies. Such missions consist of a group of experts who visit a country for a period of time immediately prior to and during election day to make an overall assessment of the administrative and legal framework for the conduct of elections and to provide targeted recommendations.

An assessment mission does not comment on the process in the same comprehensive manner as an observation mission, and it does not undertake any systematic observation on election day.