OSCE parliamentarians to observe early parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan

COPENHAGEN, 9 March 2016 – OSCE parliamentarians will observe the upcoming early parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan and provide leadership for the OSCE’s short-term observer mission.

OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Frank-Walter Steinmeier has designated Marietta Tidei (MP, Italy) as Special Co-ordinator to lead the short-term OSCE observer mission for the 20 March vote.

Geir Joergen Bekkevold (MP, Norway) will serve as Head of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Delegation, which will include 55 MPs from 21 OSCE participating States.

“My fellow observers and I look forward to following the electoral process in Kazakhstan in great detail. I hope to see progress on serious shortcomings raised by OSCE observers four years ago, particularly in terms of respect for political pluralism, media freedom, and transparency in vote-counting and tabulation. Our mission is also an expression of solidarity with the people of Kazakhstan, who deserve elections that meet democratic standards,” Special Co-ordinator Tidei said.

OSCE parliamentarians will participate in several days of briefings in Astana before deploying to polling stations in several regions of the country for election day observation. They will work closely with observers from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) and in co-ordination with colleagues from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The mission will assess the elections against democratic commitments contained in the OSCE’s 1990 Copenhagen Document.

Special Co-ordinator Tidei serves as the Rapporteur of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Committee on Economic Affairs, Science, Technology and Environment. She served as OSCE Special Co-ordinator for the observation mission to the 2015 parliamentary elections in Tajikistan and has also observed elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, Moldova, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States.

Geir Joergen Bekkevold, who will lead the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Delegation of observers, is Head of the Norwegian Delegation to the OSCE PA. He worked alongside Tidei as Head of the OSCE PA Delegation of observers for the 2015 parliamentary elections in Tajikistan and has also observed votes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Ukraine, the United States and Turkey. In addition, he observed Kazakhstan’s presidential election in 2011 and its parliamentary elections in 2012.

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly has observed parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan in 1994, 1995, 1999, 2004, 2007 and 2012, as well as presidential elections in 2005 and 2011. Since 1993, more than 5,000 OSCE parliamentarians and staff have observed nearly 150 different elections in more than 30 countries.

For more information about the OSCE PA's election monitoring work, click here