Safeguarding Electoral Integrity in the Western Balkans: Strengthening Oversight and Trust

As part of the “Support to Electoral Reforms in the Western Balkans” project, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) will organize the regional workshop “Safeguarding Electoral Integrity in the Western Balkans: Strengthening Oversight and Trust”.

The event will bring together institutional and civil society actors from across the region to assess how democratic safeguards are applied in practice, identify co-ordination gaps and explore how legal frameworks, co-operation mechanisms and reforms can be strengthened.

The workshop will foster peer exchange and inter-institutional dialogue, emphasizing the interconnected and complementary roles of election commissions, oversight bodies, judiciary, media and civil society in upholding electoral integrity. Special attention will be given to institutional independence, transparency mechanisms and enforcement practices throughout the electoral process. The workshop will focus on practical challenges and opportunities for electoral reform, exploring solutions to improve coordination, enforcement, and transparency, with particular attention to digital campaigning and political finance.

Participants will include

• Experts and institutions relevant to electoral management, legal frameworks, inter-institutional co-operation mechanisms and anti-corruption;
• Representatives from civil society and citizen observer organizations active in electoral integrity, legal implementation and institutional accountability;
• Local media practitioners and investigative journalists specializing in electoral coverage, anti-corruption and campaign finance;
• Representatives from ODIHR and relevant European institutions.

Participation is by invitation only.

Contact

For further information, please contact the Support to Electoral Reforms in the Western Balkans project team at wb-project@odihr.pl.