From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Mon Feb 28 2000 - 11:46:46 EST
RFERL Analysis: WHAT ARE 'FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS?'
By Sarah Martin
For several years, Hrair Balian has been an election
observer in former Soviet countries that are new to
democracy. Today, he heads the Office for Democratic
Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE. In that
capacity, he is in charge of sending observation missions to
monitor elections throughout the 54-state OSCE region. His
office produces reports on the elections' procedures and
outcome--in other words, it seeks to determine how free and
fair those elections are.
In an interview with RFE/RL, Balian defined the terms
"free" and "fair": "Freedom relates to the freedom of a voter
to make a choice on a ballot without any undue pressure from
any source. The fairness relates to conditions under which
the candidates, political parties are able to compete in an
electoral campaign."
But freedom and fairness are only two of seven elements
the OSCE examines when it assesses the democratic nature of
an election. The organization also evaluates the universality
of the vote--that is, who is deemed eligible to cast a ballot
and who is not--the transparency of the electoral process,
the secrecy of the ballot, and the government's
accountability to the electorate.
Balian says any one of these individual elements can be,
and often are, violated. "One of the most common violations--
where we are devoting a lot of attention and resources now--
is the transparency of an election," he comments. "You can
conduct a perfect election on election day. You can give your
voters all of the chances they deserve to make a free choice
of candidates, parties, etc. And if the process falls apart
during the tabulation of the results arriving from the
polling stations, then that becomes seriously problematic."
Balian's office sends both long- and short-term
observers to watch the entire election cycle. Ahead of the
vote, they look at the registration of voters and candidates
and the way the media covers the campaign. On election day,
they watch the voting, ballot-counting, and declaration of
results. And finally, observers monitor the installment in
office of the winners.
OSCE monitors observe at least 10 percent of the polling
stations in a given country. That means it may send 400
observers to a large country, such as Russia, but only 100 to
Croatia.
Balian says the OSCE does not monitor all the countries
that have questionable electoral practices. It simply does
not have the resources to do that. Instead, the organization
looks for countries where it may be able to have a positive
impact.
Most recently, these have been the countries that once
made up the Soviet Union--states moving from a one-party
system to multi-party pluralism, which pose a particular kind
of problem, according to Balian: "In many of the transitional
countries..., (residents) have experienced for the first time
in the history of their country any level of democratic
election. So, for the first time they are confronted with the
possibility of making a choice and their choice counting."
Tajikistan is a case in point. This weekend, Tajiks
voted in parliamentary elections for the first time since
1991. The elections are part of a peace accord ending a
bloody civil war. Marie Struthers of Human Rights Watch, an
international monitoring group, has been working in
Tajikistan on and off since 1997, when the accord was signed.
She told RFE/RL that one of the most difficult obstacles on
the road to democracy is voter education:
"People have not seen candidates express diverging
views--although the views are not so diverging in Tajikistan
- via the press. And they are not used to having one platform
compared or contrasted against another. I mean, I speak to
people every day in the streets, in the stores, and I ask
them: 'Who will you vote for?' 'What party will you vote
for?' And they say: 'We don't really understand the
difference between the parties...and we don't know many of
the people presenting themselves because they haven't been
exposed to us."
Struthers says the transition to free and fair elections
in a country like Tajikistan is a slow process. But she has
no doubt about the importance of implementing a democratic
system. She says that people have to be given the right to
exercise their right to choice in a free manner. In her
words: "They should be able to say, 'I vote for this person'
in an unrestricted manner--without intimidation, without
pressure and without reprisal."
The author is an intern with RFE/RL's News and Current
Affairs Division.
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