OSCE parliamentarians debate future of election observation at European Parliament in Brussels

COPENHAGEN, 12 November 2018 – Election monitoring by members of parliament helps to emphasize the importance of democratic processes, said OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Vice-President Isabel Santos (MP, Portugal) Thursday at a high-level conference on the Future of Election Observation in Brussels.

The conference was organized by the European Parliament and included broad participation by international organizations, national parliamentarians and civil society representatives from across Europe and beyond.

Vice-President Santos led a delegation on behalf of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, including Secretary General Roberto Montella, which was strengthened by participation from several senior Assembly Members including OSCE PA Vice-Presidents Margareta Cederfelt (Sweden) and Victor Dobre (Romania), and Barbara Bartus and Lucian Romascanu, the Heads of the Polish and Romanian delegations to the OSCE PA, respectively.

Speaking on the topic of the role and best practices of parliamentary observation, Vice-President Santos stressed that the OSCE PA’s balanced approach of observing in both consolidated and developing democracies helps to reinforce that election observation should be seen as an opportunity to strengthen all democracies. She also underlined the advantages of parliamentary work in observation.

“Put simply, oversight and advice of democratic processes needs input from people chosen through democratic processes. Observation is fundamentally about bringing additional transparency to election processes, so transparency of how observers are selected is critical,” said Santos. “Parliamentarians’ opinions and work is transparent by nature of being publicly elected officials.”

Vice-President Santos described OSCE PA procedures that help to ensure continued credibility and accountability of OSCE PA election observation missions. She also noted concerns related to ‘rogue’ or ‘fake’ observers that do not work on transparent and systematic methods. Such projects should not undermine the important work of credible internationally-mandated observation missions, she said.

Secretary General Montella, while recognizing the importance of a strict code of conduct for parliamentary observers in order to preserve the integrity and impartiality of election observation missions, also encouraged civil servants and experts to exercise maximum independence and called for a more transparent and accountable policy of recruitment of the experts involved in electoral assessments.

The high-level conference included remarks by Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament, and Federica Mogherini, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, among other dignitaries.

OSCE PA work in the field of election observation dates back to 1993, since which time the Assembly has observed over 150 electoral processes in more than 30 countries. In conducting election observation work, the OSCE PA works particularly closely with the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, as well as the European Parliament, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.