ODIHR Election Activities, 2009   Country Election Date Mission Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Presidential & Municipal 22 March & 5 April EOM 2 Montenegro Early parliamentary 29 March EOM 3 Moldova Parliamentary 5 April EOM 4 Iceland General 25 April EAM Parliamentary 4-7 June EGA 6 Albania Parliamentary 28 June EOM 7 Bulgaria Parliamentary 5 July LEOM 8 Kyrgyzstan Presidential 23 July EOM 9 Moldova 1 5 10 European Union (covering 15 participating States) Early parliamentary 29 July EOM 10 Norway Parliamentary 14 September EAM 11 Germany Parliamentary 27 September EAM 12 Portugal Parliamentary 27 September EAM 13 Greece Parliamentary 4 October EAM 14 Romania Presidential 22 November & 6 December LEOM 15 Croatia Presidential 27 December LEOM 16 Uzbekistan Parliamentary 27 December EAM levels of public confidence in the conduct of elections, the existence of well-tested election practices, a legal framework that is in line with OSCE commitments, respect for fundamental rights and freedoms, proven checks and balances (including an independent judiciary), an open civil society, a pluralistic media sector and the potential usefulness of an ODIHR presence. Unfortunately, although ODIHR would like to deploy a NAM to each participating State holding an election, existing constraints make this impossible. In six of the 16 elections mentioned above, ODIHR sent full-format election observation missions (EOMs), which include the deployment of core teams of experts, as well as long and short-term observers seconded by OSCE participating States. Three limited election observation missions (LEOMs) were deployed to countries where the presence of long-term observers was deemed to be useful but where election-day issues were either not expected to be problematic or where systemic shortcomings were so significant as to render election-day observation procedures largely meaningless. There were six cases in which election assessment missions (EAMs) were deployed to elections for which the involvement of long and short-term observers was deemed unnecessary, either due to the existence of effective checks and balances and the high level of confidence in the election process or, conversely, due to a lack of sufficient guarantees to warrant such a high number of observers. Elections Ten OSCE participating States were visited for the first time in an election context, thus widening the scope of observation activities and ensuring a higher level of scrutiny across the region. This trend will continue in the future. Over the course of 2009, ODIHR published 67 election-related reports (needs assessment mission reports, interim reports, preliminary statements, final reports and various legal reviews) and some 35 press releases. These efforts were undertaken with a view to assisting a wide range of participating States in improving their electoral processes, in accordance with the requirements of the 1990 OSCE Copenhagen Document. These observation activities both evaluated the extent to which OSCE commitments and other international standards for democratic elections had been met and focused on measures that could be taken by participating States to improve future election processes. A total of about 2,300 observers, from 52 participating States and three OSCE Partners for Co-operation, were deployed by ODIHR in 2009. In order to further promote the objective of diversification, as set out in Ministerial Council Decision No. 19/06, “Strengthening the Effectiveness of the OSCE”, ODIHR also continues to make use of the “Fund for Diversification”. This extra-budgetary programme allows ODIHR to more effectively draw observers from a variety of participating States, especially those that do not traditionally second observers. On this basis, ODIHR funded the ODIHR Annual Report 2009