ANNUAL REPORT 2004 Elections An OSCE observer follows two election officials as they carry a mobile ballot box around Tolochin during parliamentary elections in Belarus, 17 October 2004. democratic electoral process, including the legislative count how the process affects both women and men. framework; the administrative preparations; the polit- Russian- and Albanian-language versions of the hand- ical campaign, including the media environment; the book will be published in the first quarter of 2005. complaints and appeals process; and the voting, counting, and tabulation of results. In 2004, the ODIHR fur- The ODIHR also sent a gender expert to the Election ther enhanced its observation methodology by focus- Observation Mission in Kazakhstan. This was the first ing more thoroughly on the issue of women’s time that an expert has been uniquely dedicated to participation, as well as on improvements to its media- observing gender issues in an election observation monitoring capacity. mission.
Monitoring the participation of women in the
Guidelines on media analysis during election ob- electoral process servation missions The ODIHR published a Handbook for Monitoring In January 2004, the ODIHR hosted an expert meeting Women’s Participation in Elections in 2004, which sets in Warsaw to discuss the methodology used for media out practical steps that each election observation mis- analysis during election observation missions. This led sion can take to inte- to the subsequent finalization of draft Guidelines on grate a gender perspec- Media Analysis During Election Observation Missions, tive into its work. It is which have been sent to the European Union and the intended to ensure that, Council of Europe for comments and input. The guide- when drawing conclu- lines were also tested in late 2004, as they were used to sions about the extent to which an train local media monitors during several election ob- election servation missions. process meets OSCE commitments and reflects universal principles, each election observation mission takes fully into ac- 15