Special Election Assessment Mission

Parliamentary Elections, 6 December 2020

Press conference

Following an invitation from the authorities of Romania, ODIHR has deployed a Special Election Assessment Mission (SEAM) to the 6 December 2020 parliamentary elections. This is in accordance with ODIHR's mandate, and based on the findings and conclusions of the Needs Assessment Mission (NAM) that took place from 14 to 18 September.

In its NAM report, ODIHR recommended to deploy a Limited Election Observation Mission (LEOM) that would include, in addition to a core team of analysts, 20 long-term observers. However, safety challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a significant shortfall of seconded observers and made deployment of long-term observers seconded by the OSCE participating States infeasible. Subsequently, ODIHR has decided to change the format of the observation activity from an LEOM to a Special Election Assessment Mission (SEAM).

The ODIHR SEAM, headed by Marianne Mikko, consists of eight international experts based in Bucharest. The ODIHR SEAM will focus on observation of those aspects of the election process that the ODIHR NAM found to merit attention. The mission will assess the elections for their compliance with OSCE commitments and other international obligations and standards, as well as with national legislation.

Fundamental components

Observers will closely follow fundamental components of the elections such as:

voter registration
candidate registration
campaign activities and media coverage of the campaign
the work of the election administration and relevant government bodies
election-related legislation and its implementation
the resolution of election-related disputes

Election Day

The ODIHR SEAM will not carry out systematic or comprehensive observation of the voting, counting and tabulation on election day. Mission members will, however, visit a small number of polling stations on election day.

The day after the elections, ODIHR will hold a press conference. A final report summing up the observation and making recommendations for improvements will be published approximately two months after the end of the election process.