British parliamentarian to lead OSCE short-term election observation in Bosnia and Herzegovina

COPENHAGEN, 20 September, 2006 - David Heath, a British Member of Parliament, has been appointed to lead the OSCE short-term election observation mission to the general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 1 October. Heath was appointed Special Co-ordinator for the mission yesterday by the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht.

The OSCE mission is a joint undertaking of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, which has deployed a long-term mission headed by On-Site Co-ordinator Ambassador Lubomir Kopaj of Slovakia.

Heath, who has extensive experience in public office, elections and OSCE election monitoring, will also lead the delegation of more than 40 parliamentarians from the OSCE PA.

On Election Day, observers will be deployed to polling stations to monitor the sealing of ballot boxes, voting and the counting of ballots. Since 1993, the OSCE PA has deployed more than 2000 parliamentarians to observe 79 elections across the OSCE region.

The OSCE mission works in close co-operation with observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, created by the CSCE Summit in Paris in 1990, is the parliamentary dimension of the 56-state Organization. The primary task of the 320-member Assembly is to facilitate inter-parliamentary dialogue.