OSCE/ODIHR opens mission to assess parliamentary elections in Estonia

WARSAW, 21 February 2011 - The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) today opened an election assessment mission for the parliamentary elections to be held in the Estonia on 6 March.

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

The mission, led by Cayetana de Zulueta, a former member of the Italian parliament and senate, comprises 14 international election experts from 14 OSCE participating States. The team will be based in Tallinn but will deploy experts to other areas of Estonia.

The experts will assess and report on the overall framework for the conduct of the elections. They will focus on issues including the internet voting, political party and campaign financing, as well as participation of national minorities.

As part of the assessment process, the experts will meet relevant governmental authorities, election administration officials, candidates, political parties, representatives of civil society, media and the resident diplomatic community.

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.