International election observers to present findings at press conference in Tirana on Monday

TIRANA, 19 June 2015 - The international observers deployed by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Council of Europe's Congress of Local and Regional Authorities will present their preliminary statement of findings and conclusions on the 21 June local elections in Albania at a press conference in Tirana on Monday.

The preliminary statement will be delivered by Ambassador Audrey Glover, Head of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission, and Stewart Dickson, Head of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities delegation. Declan McDonnell, Spokesperson for the members of the Congress delegation from the EU Committee of Regions, and Ron Laufer, Deputy Head of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission, will also participate in the press conference.

The international observation mission comprises some 200 observers, including 168 lomg- and short-term observers deployed by the OSCE/ODIHR and 24 observers from the delegation of the Congress, including members of the EU Committee of the Regions. Altogether, the observers come from 32 countries.

Live stream of the press conference is available at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/albania-local-press-conference and on the OSCE/ODIHR homepage at //www.osce.org/odihr.

Journalists are invited to attend the press conference on Monday, 22 June, at 15:00, in the Balsha Conference Room of the Tirana International Hotel, Scanderberg Square, Tirana.

For further information contact:

Thomas Rymer, OSCE/ODIHR, mobile:  +355 69 238 7269 or +48 609 522 266, thomas.rymer@odihr.pl

Renate Zikmund, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, mobile: +33 (0)6 59 786 455, renate.zikmund@coe.int