No Russians among them
An OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) mission will observe voting in 28 American states on November 3. Katja Andrusz, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) representative, told TASS correspondent on Sunday.
“Our long-term mission will observe the elections in 28 states”, – she said. – “When deciding where exactly the teams of observers will be deployed, we take into account several factors, in particular the need to maintain a balance in terms of geography and the technical conditions for organizing elections in the various states.”
The members of the mission started their work in the USA on 29 September. It comprised representatives from Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Germany, Moldova, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia, Serbia, Switzerland and Tajikistan.
Earlier, a representative of the press service of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Nat Perry, told a TASS reporter that this year the Russians will not be part of the observer mission of this organization, which has more than 70 people. According to him, the observers from the OSCE PA will interact with long-term observers and experts from the OSCE ODIHR.
According to the New York-based NGO Council on Foreign Relations, the OSCE, which was invited by the U.S. State Department to monitor elections, initially planned to send about 500 observers to the U.S., but due to the pandemic, their number was reduced. For the 2016 elections, the OSCE sent around 400 observers to the USA. The Council on Foreign Relations noted that representatives of the Organisation of American States were not invited to the US as observers this year.
The upcoming general elections in the USA on 3 November will elect a president and vice president, 35 senators, all 435 members of the House of Representatives, 13 state and territory governors and local authorities. The current head of state Donald Trump and the Democratic Party candidate Joseph Biden are competing for the presidency. The inauguration of the new US President is scheduled for 20 January 2021.