NEWS ANALYSIS: Russia begins dismantling OSCE election monitoring

Invitation to observers covers only election day on December 2nd

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By Kari Huhta
     
      International organisations monitoring the progress of democracy and elections have long been preparing themselves for the fact that Russia intends to limit their activities during its own upcoming elections. For all that, the conditions for election monitors for Russia's parliamentary elections in December that were made public last Wednesday caused quite a stir.
      What came out was a full-scale barrage of attempts to restrict analysis of the elections in an even broader sense.
     
The invitation sent out last Tuesday to the election monitors of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is stacked with restrictions on what has become the international norm for election inspection. Previously Moscow has set similar restrictions on the OSCE in connection with elections in several of its republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
      The OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), responsible for election observation and democratic development, was unable to say last weekend whether the organisation would be in any sort of position to carry out its task within the framework of the limitations imposed by Russia.
      "We hope that we can observe at least the latter stages of the campaign and the coverage in the media and that we will be able to get into place well before the polls", said ODIHR's spokesperson Urdur Gunnarsdottir, from the Public Affairs Unit.
      The Russian restrictions are levelled directly at the activities of ODIHR and its speciality of long-term election observation missions.
     
In its invitation to ODIHR, the central election commission of the Russian Federation made a specific reference to "short-term election observation", in other words following matters on election day itself.
      Several bodies send observers to watch over polling day in different countries. In addition to ODIHR, the election officials in Moscow have sent invitations for the December 2nd State Duma elections to the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE, to the Council of Europe, to the Nordic Council, to the "Shanghai Group" or the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), and to the Moscow-friendly grouping of former Soviet republics in the CIS, or Commonwealth of Independent States.
     
The most comprehensive coverage on the conduct of elections traditionally comes from the OSCE's parliamentary representatives on site and from the ODIHR observers.
      The drafting of a common report has often been a painfully laborious business, as the MPs attempt to put weight on the way election day passes off and the ODIHR people analyse the functioning of the country's democratic system during the campaign .
      At the most recent Russian Duma poll of four years ago, the OSCE report stated that the elections were free but not fair.
      The charge of unfairness was based specifically on the observations of long-term monitors, who noted that the political system and the media clearly favoured the government over the opposition.
     
The adverse report set in motion a Russian campaign against the ODIHR observers.
      This resistance was further stiffened by the fact that groups backed by Moscow suffered defeats in elections - monitored by the OSCE - in Ukraine and Georgia.
      The limitations on election monitoring published in Moscow are thus far the climax of this campaign, but it is hardly likely that they will be the last word.
     
Even though they are quite unique in their way, the terms set by the central election commission are milder than some in the OSCE had anticipated.
      Some form of assay of the election system can still be achieved, provided that the observers' invitations and visas are arranged in short order.
      In its earlier proposal to the OSCE, Russia suggested that the maximum number of ODIHR observers would be 50. Now Moscow is inviting 70 ODIHR election monitors and 30 OSCE parliamentarians.
     
Russia's announcement that the country would itself set the terms governing the election monitoring is quite unheard of.
      According to the normal OSCE practice, the host country sends the invitation, but thereafter it is ODIHR that determines the scale and scope of the monitoring. Previously, however, Russia has also suggested that countries being observed could have the right of veto on the content of monitors' report.
      The OSCE report on the December Duma elections could have a decisive impact on what happens next on the election monitoring front.
      Presidential elections are scheduled in Russia in March 2008.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 6.11.2007


Previously in HS International Edition:
  OSCE facing a clutch of problems as Finland prepares to take charge (29.5.2007)

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KARI HUHTA / Helsingin Sanomat
kari.huhta@hs.fi