The internacional observers have presented their preliminary findings in a press release.
The Head of the ODIHR mission, Audrey Glover, declared that the political conflict created legal uncertainty, and many decisions of the electoral administration were taken by having as objective the guarantee of these elections.
“These are the 14th elections that OSCE/ODIHR is monitoring in this country. We arrived on mission on May 23rd, with a total of 126 observers.
“We are observing the entire process. We don’t have any pre-decided idea or agenda. We are completely impartial and as always, we let the facts speak for themselves. We are not interested on who wins the elections. We evaluate them based on their compliance with the international standards. The opposition decided to not participate in these elections, while the government was determined to hold the elections without the opposition. In such a climate of political polarization, the voters didn’t have any real possibility to choose between different political subjects. In 31 municipalities, the candidates ran without opponents. There were credible claims that citizens were being pressured by both parties. The political conflict led to legal uncertainty and many electoral administration decisions were taken with the sole objective to guarantee the elections. The voting was calm and peaceful”, the OSCE ODIHR Head said.
According to Glover, ODIHR is still collecting information from the observers, and they will make a clear declaration on the final report.
“We are still collecting information and we don’t have a clear image of the electoral process yet. Until we have received this information, we will not make any declaration and say that these elections were in compliance with the electoral standards”, Glover said, adding that “our mandate is not to certify the elections. We monitor them and we come up with a final report”, she said.
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