The CEC Chair has met with the leadership of the OSCE observation mission in connection with concluding the work of the monitoring group. Ms. Yermoshina notes, “Firstly, I’d like to mention that over the years of international monitoring by the OSCE mission in our country it’s the first time that we’ve received a report which contains conclusions and lists not only negatives, but which also identifies many positives. As the Head of the Long-term OSCE Observers Mission, Mr. Faure said, this report is like mosaic. The findings indicate many good things and we need to be proud of this: the situation in the country on the eve of the elections, the openness and benevolence of all the members of the electoral commissions and their collaboration with mission members.”
The wonderful work of the mass media was also noted, which provided candidates for the Presidential post an opportunity to conduct pre-election campaigns without any censorship. It was also noted that campaigns were given every possible assistance from the local authorities. According to Ms. Yermoshina, the OSCE preliminary findings read that the voting process at 95 percent of polling stations was assessed as ‘very good’.
“I’d like to emphasise that this is a very high assessment of the standards of the voting procedure. There were shortcomings related to the transparency and clarity of the work of district electoral commissions during the vote count. Nevertheless, the number of cases where members of the mission made comment decreased in comparison with the 2012 parliamentary elections. In this respect I’d like to stress that members of the OSCE election observation mission did their best to work objectively and the organisers of the Presidential elections also put every effort locally into making the electoral process open and the vote counting procedure honest. The observers have made their conclusions and I can say that the Central Election Commission is pleased with the conclusion presented by the Organisation on Security and Co-operation in Europe,” noted Ms. Yermoshina.
The CEC also believes that the OSCE mission’s preliminary conclusion contains fewer references to anonymous sources and more positive points for development. Moreover, during the meeting, the parties shared opinions on the observation process and the elections themselves, and outlined the prospects for future co-operation. The CEC Chair thanked the mission and its leadership for their attempt to see the events that take place in our country in an unbiased way.
By Maxim Osipov
