OSCE/ODIHR opens mission to assess parliamentary elections in Slovakia

WARSAW, 1 June 2010 - The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) today opened an election assessment mission for the parliamentary elections to be held in Slovakia on 12 June.

The mission's deployment follows an invitation from the Foreign Ministry of Slovakia. As a participating State of the OSCE, Slovakia has committed itself to invite ODIHR to observe its elections.

The mission is led by Ambassador Jolanda Brunetti and consists of 10 international election experts from nine OSCE participating States. The mission will be based in Bratislava but will deploy experts to other areas of Slovakia.

The experts will assess and report on the overall framework for the conduct of the elections. They will focus on political party and campaign financing, the participation of national minorities in the elections and the coverage of the campaign by the media, among other issues.

As part of the assessment process, the experts will meet with relevant governmental authorities, election administration, candidates, political parties, the judiciary, civil society and the media.

ODIHR will not carry out systematic or comprehensive observation of the voting, counting, or tabulation on election day, but the experts plan to visit a limited number of polling stations across the country to follow election day procedures.

A final report will be issued about two months after the completion of the election process.