Head of OSCE Election Support Team upbeat about support from authorities in Afghanistan

VIENNA, 24 September 2004 - Ambassador Robert Barry of the United States, head of the OSCE Election Support Team for next month's presidential elections in Afghanistan, expressed optimism about the team's role as he prepared to fly to Kabul via Dubai at the weekend.

He said the authorities in the country were being very supportive. "They are keen to have the OSCE in and are open to advice. Out team will do what the 55 participating States asked it to in their July decision to provide support. We are not going to wait until the process is over, we will give our advice to the election administration during the process."

Ambassador Barry, named last week by the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Solomon Passy, told journalists: "We are not going to Afghanistan to say 'gotcha!' Our goal is not particularly to identify irregularities, but to give useful advice. Bear in mind that these are the first elections the country will have in a long time and most of the officials will be administering elections for the first time in their lives."

He said the length of the stay in Afghanistan was not fixed but would be for "whatever it takes. Our stay will depend on the time taken for vote tallying and on whether there is a second round or not. But I would guess our report will be ready soon after the election."

Barry said the 43-person strong Election Support Team the OSCE is sending contains "several decades worth" of election experience. An advance group of the team is already in country. The remainder, which comprises senior officials from the OSCE Secretariat and the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), as well as seconded staff from OSCE States, will fly out next week.

Barry, an experienced diplomat and former head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, has lead or taken part in numerous OSCE election missions, most recently in Kazakhstan a week ago.

He said there was obviously a concern about security and access. "The Afghan military and the Interior Ministry will provide security to us and to the European Union team and we also have contracted a private security company. The core team will be based in Kabul but we plan to have teams located in all regional centres."

The team is charged with analyzing various aspects of the electoral process and preparing recommendations for the Afghan Government to help improve the running of future elections. Barry pointed out that it was not a fully-fledged election observation mission of the type conducted by ODIHR in OSCE participating States.

This is the first involvement by the Organization the elections of a state that is not an OSCE member. However, Afghanistan became an OSCE Partner for Co-operation in 2003.