European observers: praise election, then condemn it overnight

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Observers from CIS and SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) have disagreed with observers from OSCE and PACE on the nature of parliament vote for the State Duma of the 5^th convocation held in Russia Dec 2 2007. The former two groups find the vote democratic, free, and transparent, while the latter ones call it unfair and failing to meet many standards of OSCE and the Council of Europe.

Night after the election, chairmen of regional electoral commissions who spoke with CEC by wireless communications, all reported that they had received no criticisms from international observers. And the members of the European monitoring missions themselves praised organization of the Russian vote while speaking on air in the night news programs.

And in the morning, they issued a statement, in which they, however noting “significant technical improvements,” voiced concern over “merger of the state with a political party.” “The election was held in an atmosphere of absent political competitiveness and with a frequent use of the administrative resource,” they said.

“Political bias,” was reaction of the Russian CEC to the PACE and OSCE assessment. CEC regards the statement about the alleged failing of the Russian vote to meet European standards as ungrounded. “I believe that the conclusion have been drawn based on ambitious claims of leaders of political parties who are not satisfied by their own election results,” says CEC member Igor Borisov.

He confirmed that no evidence of breaching electoral legislation have been received in CEC from international observers. He accounts that CIS observers have noticed violations of the procedure at some polling stations, but these violations do not cast doubt on the total election results published by the Russian CEC.