OSCE/ODIHR opens mission to assess early parliamentary elections in Spain
MADRID, 9 November 2011 – The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) today opened an election assessment mission for the early parliamentary elections to be held in Spain on 20 November.
The mission's deployment follows an invitation from the Spanish authorities. As a participating State of the OSCE, Spain has committed itself to invite ODIHR to observe its elections.
The mission is led by Nikolai Vulchanov and consists of six international election experts from six OSCE participating States. The mission will be based in Madrid but its members will also visit areas outside the capital to assess the campaign and electoral preparations at the provincial level.
The experts will assess and report on the overall framework for the conduct of the elections. Observers will, in particular, assess the implementation of the new legal provisions on postal voting, media coverage of the campaign, campaign finance, and access to observers.
As part of the assessment process, the mission will meet with relevant authorities, candidates, political parties, the judiciary, civil society and the media.
In accordance with ODIHR’s methodology for assessment missions, the experts will not carry out systematic or comprehensive observation of the voting, counting, or tabulation on election day, but plan to visit a limited number of polling stations to follow election day procedures.
A final report will be issued about two months after the completion of the election process.