Elections Jonathan Stonestreet Polling-station officials count ballot papers in the 22 July parliamentary elections in Turkey. V. Follow-up In the presence of sufficient political will to improve the election process in line with OSCE commitments, the post-election period enables participating States to benefit from ODIHR expertise through a process of follow-up to ODIHR election observation missions. The recommendations offered by ODIHR following observation missions could assist participating States in meeting their commitments to conduct democratic elections. As a rule, ODIHR stands ready to offer follow-up assistance to participating States; however, the overall success of such a process requires that the participating States play an active role in post-election dialogue. In May, ODIHR distributed a discussion paper among the participating States that outlines the modalities of follow-up activities. The paper was intended to launch an intra-organization “[The Ministerial Council] tasks ODIHR to consider ways to improve the effectiveness of its assistance to participating States in following up recommendations made in ODIHR election-observation reports and inform the Permanent Council on progress made in fulfilling this task.” – 2003 Maastricht Ministerial Council 18 Annual Report 2007 discussion on the most efficient practices of follow-up, including the role of the recipient country and the possibility for regular reporting on follow-up to ODIHR recommendations. As in previous years, ODIHR was actively involved in following up on the findings and recommendations of its election observation missions, notably through numerous publications, reviewing election legislation, supporting OSCE operations on targeted technical assistance, deployment of election support teams, and participation in relevant roundtables and seminars. In addition to offering comments on electoral legislation, ODIHR conducted a number of follow-up activities in 2007 in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine. Some of these activities were initiated by a visit by the ODIHR Director shortly after the publication of election observation mission reports. VI. Observer training ODIHR makes great efforts to implement its election observation methodology with the highest possible professional standards. While