Elections Corien Jonker (r), the Head of the OSCE/ODIHR Limited Election Observation Mission (LEOM) for the parliamentary elections and early presidential elections in Serbia, speaks to an election commission official at a polling station in Staro Sajmište, Belgrade, 6 May 2012. (OSCE/Shiv Sharma) and contributing to transparency, in 2012 ODIHR published 60 election-related reports, including NAM reports, interim reports, statements of preliminary findings and conclusions, final reports and legal reviews. For six of the 15 elections, ODIHR deployed full-scale Election Observation Missions (EOMs), including long- and short-term observers, which are seconded by individual participating States, as well as core teams of experts. Limited Election Observation Missions (LEOMs) include a core team of experts and long-term observers, but no short-term observers. ODIHR deployed three LEOMs in 2012 to observe the election process, but without conducting a comprehensive and systematic observation of election day. As per ODIHR’s methodology, LEOMs are deployed to participating States where long-term observers are 12 ODIHR Annual Report 2012 deemed necessary to ensure comprehensive regional coverage, but election days are expected to go smoothly, or where fundamental shortcomings are so significant as to render election-day observation inconsequential. Four election assessment missions (EAMs), comprising only a core team of experts, were also deployed in 2012. These 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, such as an independent judiciary, robust civil society and pluralistic media and the high level of confidence in the electoral process. As is the case with EOMs and LEOMs, EAMs make an overall assessment of the legal and administrative framework of elections and provide direct recommendations. ODIHR also deployed two election expert teams to look at specific issues, during the presidential election in Turkmenistan and the parliamentary elections in Romania. Additionally, the Office organized an expert visit to Russia during the 2012 local elections to see how new voting technologies are used there. Nearly 2,000 people from 48 participating States took part in ODIHR election observation in 2012. An extra-budgetary programme to support the participation of observers from countries that do not generally second observers, the ODIHR Fund for Diversification, was leveraged throughout 2012. The Fund countries include Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The Fund was used to send 41 long-term observers and

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents