Elections ODIHR expert Jonathan Stonestreet (right) addresses a roundtable in Baku on the recommendations of the 2008 ODIHR Election Observation Mission to Azerbaijan, 8 April. (OSCE/Oliver Jinks) were deployed in cases where the involvement of long- and short-term election observers was deemed unnecessary, due to the existence of effective checks and balances and the high level of confidence in the electoral process. 2 ODIHR also deployed three election expert teams — two to states holding local elections and the other for a referendum — to look at specific issues. Finally, the Office deployed one election support team to Afghanistan, under a special OSCE Permanent Council mandate. This mission is described in greater detail below. Two OSCE participating States were visited for the first time in an election context in 2010, as the Office continued to widen the scope of its observation activities and promote greater scrutiny across the OSCE region. This trend will continue in the future. Over the course of 2010, ODIHR published 74 election-related reports (needs assessment mission reports, interim reports, preliminary statements, final reports, and various legal reviews). These observation activities evaluated the extent to which the participating States visited 2  EOMS can also be deployed in cases where fundamental shortcomings are so significant as to render election-day observation inconsequential. met OSCE commitments and other international standards for democratic elections, with a focus on measures that could be taken by participating States to bring future election processes into greater conformity with the requirements of the 1990 OSCE Copenhagen Document. More than 3,700 observers from 52 participating States and two OSCE Partners for Co-operation were deployed by ODIHR in 2010. The Office also continues to make good use of its “Fund for Diversification”, an extra-budgetary programme that allows ODIHR to more effectively include observers from a wide variety of participating States in its activities, and particularly from those that do not generally second observers. This mechanism was used to fund the participation of 22 long-term observers and 98 short-term observers to nine election missions over the course of 2010. The continued funding and support for this programme on the part of certain participating States is very much appreciated, allowing ODIHR to draw upon a broader range of expertise. The basis for ODIHR’s co-operation with other international organizations is outlined in OSCE Ministerial Council Decision No. 19/06, adopted in 2006. The Office worked actively ODIHR Annual Report 2010 11