COPENHAGEN, 23 April 2013 – Eoghan Murphy, Head of the Irish Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly, has been appointed by the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Leonid Kozhara, to lead the OSCE short-term observer mission to the parliamentary elections in Bulgaria on 12 May.
The appointment by the Chairperson-in-Office followed OSCE PA President Wolfgang Grossruck’s recommendation that Murphy lead the mission in accordance with the 1997 Co-operation Agreement that guides election observation by the OSCE.
“I am humbled to be entrusted with this important task at such a decisive time in Bulgaria’s political life,” said Murphy following his appointment. “I look forward to vibrant and peaceful elections.”
The elections will be assessed for their accordance with OSCE election-related commitments as outlined in the 1990 OSCE Copenhagen Document.
Grossruck was informed of Murphy’s appointment while in Kyiv yesterday on an official visit to Ukraine, which included meetings with Foreign Minister Kozhara, President Viktor Yanukovych, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Rybak.
“The elections in Bulgaria are crucial for the country,” Grossruck wrote to Murphy in his appointment letter on 16 April. “I am confident that the observation mission will benefit greatly from your expertise in Irish and international politics as well as your experience from the Russian election observation mission last year.”
Murphy participated in the OSCE’s election observation mission to the Russian Federation in March 2012. He is a member of the OSCE PA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Transparency and Reform of the OSCE, which is mandated to strengthen interaction with parliamentarians and governments to encourage more transparency within the OSCE and other reforms to make the Organization operate more effectively and efficiently. It is also currently focused on how to improve election observation co-operation between the Parliamentary Assembly and Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
In the Irish Parliament, Deputy Murphy sits on the parliament’s highest ranking committee, the Public Accounts Committee. He previously served as a city councilor in Dublin. Prior to holding elected office, he worked in international arms control, mostly in the area of nuclear weapon disarmament.
