Head of the PACE fact-finding delegation to Moscow Luc van den Brande
Photo: Vasily Shaposhnikov
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OSCE Election Observers without Visas
The international observers invited by Russia for the parliamentary elections do not have visas yet. If the delay lasts another week, they will be unable to come at all, according to OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights spokesman Urdur Gunnarsdottir. The Russian Foreign Ministry has called the delay “technical.” Russian consulates in the countries where the observers are applying say that they have yet to receive instructions for granting visas of that type.
The OSCE decided to send an advance group of 20 observers to Russia as soon as it received the invitation. Although half of those people have diplomatic passports, the OSCE considers it inappropriate and ineffective to send them separately. In previous years, Russia invited observers as soon as the date of elections was set. This year, it waited until after the political parties were registered and those invited received their invitations between October 28 and 30. The number of observers invited has been reduced from over 1000 to 350. The number of polling stations throughout the country is about 96,000.
Head of the PACE fact-finding delegation Luc van den Brande expressed dissatisfaction at the small number of invitations issued to observers and their lateness. He said that the observers wanted to see not only the day of the elections, but the entire process, including campaigning and registration.
Russian Central Elections Commission member Igor Borisov told Kommersant that “We are very interested in the arrival of the OSCE observers.” He added that the problem would be promptly investigated and remedied.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 12, 2007
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