OSCE/ODIHR opens mission to assess parliamentary elections in Cyprus

NICOSIA, 9 May 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 Cyprus on 22 May.

The mission's deployment follows an invitation from the authorities of Cyprus. These are the first elections in Cyprus to be assessed by ODIHR.

The mission, led by Ambassador Boris Frlec, comprises nine international election experts from eight OSCE participating States. The team will be based in Nicosia but will deploy experts to other areas of Cyprus as well.

The experts will assess and report on the overall framework for the conduct of the elections. They will focus on a number of election-related matters, including political party and campaign financing, media as well as participation of women in political life.

As part of the assessment process, the experts will meet relevant state authorities, election administration, candidates, political parties, as well as 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 to follow election day procedures.

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