Parliamentary Elections, 13-14 April 2008

Following an invitation from the Italian authorities, ODIHR deployed an election assessment mission to Italy for the 13-14 April parliamentary elections.

Led by Ambassador Audrey Glover of the United Kingdom, the mission included 10 experts from 10 OSCE participating States.

According to the mission's final report: "pre-term Parliamentary elections were conducted overall in keeping with this tradition. The turnout was over 80 per cent. The elections were conducted by the election administration in a professional and efficient manner. However, media reported that the chairpersons of some polling stations and their staff did not report for duty on election days.

"Despite a high turnout, the OSCE/ODIHR EAM was informed by candidates and voters that they were discontent with the complex election law, and noted that under the current electoral system, they could no longer vote for individual candidates contributing to some lack of confidence in the electoral system."

Election Assessment Team

Ambassador Audrey Glover (United Kingdom), Head of Mission
Delphine Blanchet (France)
Rumen Maleev (Bulgaria)
Karen Gainer (Canada)
Marek Mracka (Slovakia)
Andrey Butsman (Russian Federation)
Goran Petrov (former Yugolsav Republic of Macedonia)
Igor Popov (Ukraine)
Taskyn Rakhimbekova (Kazakhstan)
Nikolai Kirilov (Bulgaria)
Mats Lindberg (Finland)