Kazakh observers to watch US President elections

Three observers from Kazakhstan and one from Kyrgyzstan will be monitoring presidential election in the U.S. on Tuesday, November 6, as members of the OSCE international observers’ team sent to the U.S. by the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), reported Silk Road Newsline.

Led by Ambassador Daan Everts from Netherlands, the ODIHR team is already in the U.S. and consists of 57 observers from 23 foreign countries. There are 13 core experts who are based in Washington D.C. and 44 long-term observers from 18 countries, including Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, who are deployed throughout the country in 40 states.

According to ODIHR, “The mission will assess these elections for their compliance with OSCE commitments and other international standards for democratic elections, as well as national legislation. Observers will follow campaign activities, the work of the election administration and relevant federal and state institutions, implementation of the legislative framework, and the resolution of election disputes.”

As part of the observation, the ODIHR team will conduct “comprehensive monitoring of the media,” the ODIHR said.

The team has already “commenced media monitoring of a cross-section of media outlets, with quantitative and qualitative analysis of their political and election-related coverage.” The media outlets selected by the OSCE team include ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NBC and PBS TV stations, NPR radio station, newspapers New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal as well as two new websites The Huffington Post and Politico.

The 6 November general elections comprise elections for the President and the Vice-President, 33 of the 100 seats in the Senate, and all 435 seats in the House of Representatives.

Although a total of 32 presidential candidates will be on the ballots across the country, only four have attainted ballot access in a sufficient number of states to be potentially elected. Apart from President Barack Obama and former Governor Mitt Romney, this includes: former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, the nominee of the Libertarian Party, and Jill Stein, the Green Party nominee.

In addition, there are a total of 120 candidates competing for the 33 Senate seats and some 1,200 candidates competing for the 435 seats of the House of Representatives, the ODIHR said.

ca-news.org