Pia Kauma and Pere Joan Pons in Warsaw, 16 October 2023COPENHAGEN, 29 October 2024 – Around 150 members of parliament from more than 40 countries are travelling to the United States to observe the 5 November general elections as part of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s election observation mission. It is the largest delegation of OSCE parliamentarians since the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly began its election observation activities in 1993 and is the tenth time that the OSCE PA has deployed an election observation mission to the United States.
Finnish parliamentarian and OSCE PA President Pia Kauma has been appointed Special Coordinator and leader of the short-term OSCE observer mission, while Spanish parliamentarian and OSCE PA Vice-President Pere Joan Pons will head the OSCE PA mission. They will be supported by 30 international civil servants and will join some 80 long-term observers and experts deployed by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, making a total of more than 250 observers for the OSCE mission to the United States.
President Kauma noted the importance of international election observation in promoting transparency and building trust, particularly in close elections. “When an election is a tight race, it is important to have the highest level of transparency possible so that the people have faith in the outcome,” Kauma said. “Our main objective as observers is to serve the citizens and help ensure that the will of the people is reflected in the outcome of the election. To do so, we bring decades of experience in observing elections and a strong methodology based on both long-term and short-term observation.”
Vice-President Pons added that the OSCE PA is excited to return to the United States to offer its unique perspective to the observation process. “As observers and as parliamentarians, we bring a perspective of fairness and impartiality to the process,” Pons said. “Having competed in elections ourselves, we understand the importance of upholding democratic standards and this is our sole purpose in coming to observe this important election.”
Following days of intensive briefings and meetings with experts, stakeholders and election administrators, OSCE parliamentarians will fan out across the country for Election Day observation. Invited by the U.S. State Department, the mission works closely with officials from state and local election authorities, to ensure smooth deployment and observation.
Observers will assess the elections against commitments in the OSCE Copenhagen Document of 1990, paying particular attention to the campaign environment, the legal framework, election administration, new voting technologies, redistricting issues, election day procedures, and media coverage.
The observers’ preliminary findings and conclusions will be delivered at a press conference in Washington on 6 November, which will also stream live at www.oscepa.org.
For previous OSCE PA assessments of U.S. elections, please click here.
Watch a video on OSCE PA election observation here.
To read a recent op-ed that Pia Kauma wrote about the observation mission, please click here.
