News and press releases

Op-ed by George Tsereteli and Isabel Santos, The Hill, 1 November 2018

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) hosted the fourth annual Electoral Seminar, with a focus on election observation, fundamental freedoms and election campaigns, on 30 October 2018 in Vienna. The event brought together more than 100 representatives of OSCE delegations, election management bodies, international organizations and citizen observer groups. 

COPENHAGEN, 30 October 2018 – Some 75 members of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly will soon be travelling to the United States to observe the 6 November midterm elections. Led by Special Co-ordinator of the OSCE short-term observer mission George Tsereteli (MP, Georgia) and Head of the OSCE PA mission Isabel Santos (MP, Portugal), the observers will participate in several days of meetings and briefings in Washington, DC, before deploying around the country for election day observation...

TBILISI, 29 October 2018 – Georgia’s 28 October presidential election was competitive and professionally administered. Candidates were able to campaign freely and voters had a genuine choice, although there were instances of the misuse of state resources, and the involvement of senior state officials from the ruling party in campaigning was not always in line with the law, the international observers concluded in a preliminary statement released today. A substantial imbalance in donations and excessively high spending limits further contributed to an unlevel playing field, the statement says...

COPENHAGEN, 22 October 2018 – Leading members of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s election observation mission to the 28 October presidential election in Georgia are arriving this week in Tbilisi for final preparations of the mission...

COPENHAGEN, 12 November 2018 – Election monitoring by members of parliament helps to emphasize the importance of democratic processes, said OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Vice-President Isabel Santos (MP, Portugal) Thursday at a high-level conference on the Future of Election Observation in Brussels...

SARAJEVO, 8 October 2018 – The 7 October general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina were genuinely competitive but characterized by continuing segmentation along ethnic lines, the international observers concluded in a preliminary statement released today. Long-standing deficiencies in the legal framework remain, and recent discussions on reform were stalled by political disagreements, further eroding trust in public institutions, the observers said...