- July 25, 2012
- 303
ODIHR recommends sending the OSCE’s election assessment mission to Lithuania
The mission of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which stayed in Lithuania on 26-28 June, presented a report on the upcoming parliamentary elections in Lithuania.
Generally, authors of the report express their confidence in the impartiality and professionalism of the Lithuanian election administration. However, at the same, they recommend sending a mission to observe the elections.
As stated in the report, all participants contacted by the members of the ODIHR mission in Lithuania expressed their confidence in the Lithuanian electoral system. ‘Only a small concern about the procedures on election day at the lowest level were presented, however, they should not have a major impact on the whole electoral process”, states the report.
Authors of the report draw attention to new legal regulations adapted by Lithuania, dealing with campaign financing, the participation of media in elections and with issues related to the participation of ethic minorities and their voting equality; they also believe that these issues require further inspection.
During the ODIHR mission’s stay in Lithuania, its representatives – Raul Muresan and Robert Krimmer – met with the leaders of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania. As noted in the report, during this meeting the leaders of EAPL criticized the division of electoral constituencies in Vilnius County, which, in their opinion, weaken the strength of Polish votes.
Waldemar Tomaszewski informed the ODIHR representavies about the impossibility of campaigning in languages of national minorities and bout the absence of the EAPL representatives in positions of managers of the electoral commissions in the electoral districts.
The ODIHR mission expressed its conviction that, paying attention to the political pluralism, diversity of media environment and the appropriate legal system in Lithuania, there should be no major fraud during the election; however, they recommended placement of Lithuania election assessment mission of the OSCE.
Tłumaczenie Ewelina Zarembska w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Ewelina Zarembska within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.
