COPENHAGEN, 22 September 2015 – OSCE parliamentarians will observe the upcoming presidential election in Belarus and provide leadership for the OSCE's short-term observer mission.
OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ivica Dacic has designated Kent Harstedt (MP, Sweden) as Special Co-ordinator to lead the short-term OSCE observer mission for the 11 October vote.
James Walsh (MP, Ireland) will serve as Head of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Delegation, which will include more than 50 MPs from 22 OSCE participating States.
“The OSCE’s assessments of previous elections in Belarus show that there is major need for improvement in fundamental areas, including the need to ensure a level playing field for all candidates. Belarus has recently been in the international news for hosting negotiations on the Ukraine crisis, but the international community will be watching this election closely – and I hope we will see concrete improvements that will enable us to report some positive news on the day after the election,” Harstedt said.
On 22-23 September Harstedt will travel to Minsk and Homel for a pre-election visit, meeting with a range of officials and stakeholders in the election process.
OSCE parliamentarians will participate in several days of briefings in Minsk before deploying to polling stations across Belarus 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 Harstedt serves as a Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and as Head of the Swedish Delegation to the Assembly. He was a member of the OSCE PA’s observation mission to the 2010 presidential election in Belarus and has also observed elections in Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and the United States. He also served as OSCE Special Co-ordinator for the 2014 parliamentary elections in Ukraine.
James Walsh, who will lead the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Delegation of observers, previously led the Assembly’s Election Assessment Field Visit to the 2013 parliamentary elections in Turkmenistan. He has also observed presidential or parliamentary votes in Russia, Tajikistan and the United States.
The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly previously observed presidential elections in Belarus in 2001, 2006 and 2010 as well as parliamentary elections in 1995, 2004, 2008 and 2012.
Since 1993, more than 5,000 OSCE parliamentarians and staff have observed nearly 150 elections in more than 30 countries.
For more information about the OSCE PA's election monitoring work, click here.
