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Russian Foreign Ministry: â€œIt is high time to impose order in OSCE election observationâ€

17 October 2013 08:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku – APA. “It is necessary to impose order in the field of election observation in OSCE countries. This process should be carried out in all countries on equal terms,” said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexey Meshkov in his interview with RIA Novosti, APA reports.

Meshkov mentioned that one of the main tasks of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Bureau is to monitor national elections in the member states: “Our position on election is simple and logical. We consider that first of all, it is necessary to conduct observation in the elections in all OSCE countries, secondly, this observation will be carried out on equal terms and thirdly, the participation in observation will take place under common agreed rules with the consent of states. However, now the process is not like that. Monitoring is mainly carried out from Vienna to East. For example, in the case of Azerbaijan and Tajikistan, the question is about the full-scale observation missions consisting of several hundreds of people. For comparison, I want to say that only 2 experts observed the parliamentary elections in Germany on September 22 on the recommendation of the Office. In a word, it is high time to set in order in this field. Proposal of member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization regarding the observation of elections in the OSCE region has been on the table since 2007.”

Meshkov added that an extra-budgetary project had been launched on conducting a comparative analysis of the electoral legislation and practices of the member states on the initiative of Russia and Belarus and with the support of Ukraine that is presiding over the OSCE. He expressed hope that this issue would be discussed at the conference of experts in Vienna till the end of this year.