“No compromise for observing elections”

McCormack underlines that there will be no compromise in declaring the facts during the voting day, the ballot counting process and the result. The OSCE-ODIHR chief observer said that for the moment they are collecting information from the terrain, based on facts, and are processing that information for the report that will be announced after two weeks.

Top Channel:  Miss. McCormack, what made you apply for the position as head of the ODIHR mission in Albania?

Conny McCormack: I have always been interested in working with the OSCE, and I have never worked before with ODIHR, so I think it’s really a good opportunity to have fresh eyes on the process. I have done a lot of election observation missions and pre-election assessments with other organizations and I thought it would be nice to have this component into my resume.

Top Channel:  At this time, the political parties and the Central Election Commission are the main actors to these elections. Since you arrived in Tirana, what sort of opinion have you created about the way how they are involved in the process, and how the process itself has been conducted so far?

Conny McCormack: As you know, we have a very wide presence with ODIHR. We have a core team of 15 internationals here, from 14 participating states. So, we have election analysts, media analysts, we have legal analysts and I myself have had meetings with members of the main political parties, and I feel that the process is now on the ground. We are gathering information, we are putting together facts and that’s what we do. ODIHR is very fact and evidence-based. We don’t form opinions so early, but we are collecting enough data right now that when our interim report comes out in two weeks time you’ll see a lot of that type of information projected in the interim report.

Top Channel:  The report itself… can you tell us in what areas it will be focused mostly, in terms of the whole process?

Conny McCormack: That’s what ODIHR does. We are here for two months because we can collect information, everything from the campaign activities to the electoral bodies, including of course the CEC, so the administration, the voter registration, the candidate list, the post-election process. We will be here until July 9th so all the way through the electoral complaint process, and we will also be looking into the two pilot projects of the technology. It is very comprehensive what we look at.

Top Channel:  All these actors which I mentioned, according to you, are they playing well their role, as it has been described on the Albanian electoral code.

Conny McCormack: Well clearly the legal framework is one of the aspects we evaluate, and we will be looking at the Electoral Code and the complaints with the Electoral Code, and that is one of the many aspects that we look at. So, right now, of course there is some situations that are not exactly in compliance.

Top Channel:  As you mentioned, you had several meetings, including one meeting at the CEC. In fact, with only four remaining members, after one of them was dismissed by the Albanian Parliament, and two others resigned, have you made any assessments so far about the work of the CEC, about their task to administrate the elections?

Conny McCormack: Clearly, the problem with the qualified majority is on everyone’s mind, and the requirement to have five members for some of their decisions, which right now is not possible. We are collecting information on that and we are seeing the decisions they are making, and which ones are in compliance and which ones should have the five member qualified majorities. And that will be a part of our interim report. We will talk about this issue, which clearly is on everyone’s mind. And it is a major component of what one of the aspects we will be evaluating.

Top Channel:  From your point of view as a person with a well established career on monitoring elections, can Albania have free and fair elections with this CEC, where the opposition is not represented?

Conny McCormack: It’s one aspect of the elections, and one of the things that we do is looking at all aspects of the elections. We look at everything, from the administration all the way through the counting, the viewing, the voting process, which is such a key part of the process and the transparency of that, the transmission of the results, is that going accurately and appropriately.  So, there is many other aspects to the election process than just the legal framework, but clearly the legal framework is an important aspect of it.

Top Channel:  According to your experience, what could be the best solution for the current situation with the CEC.

Conny McCormack: I think right now there are many people trying to find a solution to the CEC situation, and clearly would be much better to have it fully constituted, but it is operating right now and evaluating that will have to wait for a little bit longer in the process.

Top Channel:  In the past almost 25 years, you have been monitoring elections in several countries. Please, can you highlight to us what sort of standards should fulfill Albania in order for you in last OSCE and ODIHR report to write “Albania did fulfill the high standards of elections, as it has been requested by the USA and the EU”.

Conny McCormack: This is our eleventh mission in Albania so we have a lot of experience here. As you know, ODIHR looks at the elections throughout all of the participating states. We don’t compare election to election. We don’t say this one was better than that, and we don’t have a black or white scale, like it’s either free or fair, or if it’s not. We actually look at the OSCE commitments, the international standards and we also look at the national legislation, which is what you and I have just been talking about. There are many aspects of the review, and I think that’s why ODIHR has just a good reputation. It’s because we are fact-based, we are impartial and we look at every election at its own. We don’t have a scale that says this one is better than another one. It’s just not our process. We look at that election at that point in time.

Top Channel:  The Parliamentary Assembly of OSCE is represented to Albania with the head of the mission, Mr.Roberto Batelli. You may be amazed by my question, but please don’t. I have to make this question for its sensibility of such issue that the name of Mr.Batelli created when we learned the fact that he was coming as head of the mission. Mr.Batelli is known as friend of Mr.Wolfgang Grossruck, whose friendship with Prime Minister Berisha is well known to everyone. For the Albanian people, this relation matters a lot. Perhaps this is not the way how people in your country, England or Germany think. I’d like asking you a sincere question. Do you have faith on the independence of Mr.Batelli and how influential it will be the last report of OSCE-ODIHR. Or better to say, the friends of the Prime Minister in this organization, how powerful they will be?

Conny McCormack: Clearly the partnership between the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and ODIHR is that they come in with a Parliamentary review. It’s a very short-term evaluation. They’re only on the ground for about two weeks, and they’re complimentary. We are the ones doing an eight week long mission. So we hope to have a cooperation with them, we hope to have one statement, and that is always the goal. We won’t know for a couple more weeks until they get here and see what kind of an assessment… but clearly we are not going to let their decisions influence ours. We have already been here for a lot longer, we will gather a lot of facts and those facts will come out. And we will have to hammer out and see whether or not we can come up with one statement that we all agree with. That’s always a challenge, as you know, and there are many other observers that are coming as well, with the Council of Europe, the PACE, and probably the European Parliament. So, there will be a lot of internationals here, as they always are. But we will be working on a relationship. I have personally met Mr.Batelli, I met with him in the past week, and we had a good cordial first meeting. I felt that was a good start. But we have to wait and see on your question.

Top Channel:  Is it fair to say that the last word on the final report is going to be up to you, not Mr.Batelli.

Conny McCormack: That’s going to have to be worked out , isn’t it? So, we will have to wait and see when the preliminary statement comes out the day after the election, in the afternoon. It is my understanding from people at the ODIHR that this is always a hammered out statement, word by word, so I’m sure there will be a negotiation assembly to that, but we are hoping to present a united front at the press conference. But I can tell in the day after the election. But I can tell you that ODIHR will not be compromised. If we have found finding that we want to reveal, you will hear them.

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