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Speech by Amb. Gérard Stoudmann

Agenda of the meeting

Guidelines and agenda

This report provides a brief assessment of the election legislation governing the forthcoming local and federal elections in Serbia and the FRY. It seeks to identify conflicts between the content of the legislation and best practice, appropriate international standards and OSCE commitments. It focuses on those particular areas of the legislation which may raise the risk of fraud or malpractice. The laws reviewed are those relating to presidential elections, elections of deputies to the Chamber of Citizens (the lower chamber of the federal parliament), elections of deputies to the Chamber of Republics (the upper chamber in the federal parliament) and elections of members of municipal assemblies in Serbia. The presidential election law was adopted on 24 July 2000 following amendments to the Constitution which allow for the direct election of the federal president. The president was previously elected by parliament, the Federal Assembly. The review of the Law on elections to the lower chamber takes into account the amendments introduced into that Law in July 2000.

Agenda of the meeting. Annex- Chairman's Statement.

4th Meeting of the Ministerial Council, Rome, 1 December 1993 (extract)

CSCE and the New Europe- Our Security is Indivisible (Summary of Conclusions), Decisions.

1998 Budget for OSCE Tasks in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Agenda of the meeting

Since 1998, the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has been assisting the authorities of Azerbaijan to develop election legislation in line with OSCE commitments. In particular, in the course of 2000 the ODIHR provided assistance for the drafting of the Law on the Central Election Commission and the Law on Parliamentary Elections (the Law). On 30 May 2000, the ODIHR submitted to the authorities and representatives of political parties Preliminary Comments on the Law on Parliamentary Elections of the Republic of Azerbaijan (the Preliminary Comments), based on a draft Law provided by the authorities of Azerbaijan. Further discussions were subsequently held between the ODIHR experts and relevant authorities to clarify a number of the provisions contained in the draft Law. The following are Final Comments based on an unofficial translation of the Law, provided by the International Foundation for Election System. This document supplements the Preliminary Comments and is intended to be read in conjunction with that report. It provides comments on the final text as enacted on 5 July 2000 and amended on 21 July. The analysis emphasises some of the major areas of concern with the law and contains a number of recommendations for amendments and clarifications to improve the election legislation, in line with international standards and, in particular, the OSCE commitments formulated in the 1990 Copenhagen Document on the Human Dimension.