A voter in the Kazakh capital of Astana collects his ballot from election officials during parliamentary elections on 19 September 2004. of post-election follow-up to facilitate implementation 4. Follow-up of recommendations contained in final reports. While the ODIHR’s election observation findings may not always make for easy reading for all election stake- The Office actively followed up on recommendations in holders, it is the duty of the ODIHR to offer realistic as- Albania and Armenia in 2004. In addition, a long-term sessments of participating States’ compliance with follow-up exercise begun prior to the last round of OSCE commitments. Despite significant improvements elections in Kazakhstan in 2000 was completed with a in the conduct of elections in a number of participating review of the country’s constitutional law on elections. States, OSCE election-related commitments were frequently challenged in 2004, and corresponding ODIHR Future priorities recommendations remain to be implemented. While the ODIHR is committed to assisting participating States in realizing their election-related commitments, The ODIHR plans to continue its election observation a few states have denied any merit in the ODIHR’s find- and assessment activities in 2005, including its support ings and have therefore been unwilling to engage in of OSCE field missions in cases where an observation serious discussion concerning the subsequent recom- mission is not deployed. The Office also plans to con- mendations. Such a scenario does not provide a suit- sider its capacity for observation of referenda, an issue able foundation for effective follow-up. of increasing concern among participating States. At the 1999 Istanbul Summit, participating States The most urgent election-related topic in the OSCE pledged “to follow up promptly ODIHR's election as- today is the implementation of commitments. It is nec- sessments and recommendations.” And at the Ministe- essary to further engage governments, political parties, rial Council in Maastricht in December 2003, the ODIHR and civil society in a dialogue on improvements to the was requested to consider ways to improve the effec- regulation, conduct, and contest of elections, and to tiveness of its assistance to participating States in fol- develop models for post-election engagement. This lowing up recommendations made in election observa- will facilitate the ODIHR’s efforts to assess implementa- tion reports. In response, the ODIHR is developing tion of recommendations contained in ODIHR final re- methods for engaging participating States on matters ports of election observation missions. 16