07.11.2011

SPEECH BY MR MEVLÜT ÇAVUŞOĞLU,

PRESIDENT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY,

ON THE OCCASION OF THE

SEMINAR ON ELECTIONS MONITORING ORGANIZED BY THE INTERPARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY OF THE

CIS MEMBER NATIONS

ST PETERSBURG, Russian Federation - 10 November 2011

Dear colleagues,

It is a great pleasure and honour for me to participate in this seminar and, first of all, allow me to thank Ms Matvyenko, Speaker of the Council of Federation, for the warm welcome and hospitality in St Petersburg which is also your home district. I would also like to take this opportunity and congratulate her on being the newly elected Speaker of the CIS Parliamentary Assembly .

Dear colleagues, friends,

We have all gathered here today because we believe in the fundamental role and value of democratic elections which form one of the main pillars of our political model of governance. Wherever there are democracies, there are elections. Therefore, the holding of democratic elections is not just a constitutional obligation or an international commitment. It is an essential element of the normal functioning of our democratic societies.

It is no wonder that election-related issues have always been in the focus of the attention of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Over the past couple of years, our Assembly adopted a number of resolutions and recommendations on various aspects of elections: to give but a few examples, I would highlight Assembly reports dealing with electronic democracy; women’s representation in politics; electoral thresholds; an internationally recognised status of election observers; as well as the expansion of democracy by lowering the voting age to 16.

Moreover, a number of draft reports are in preparation on the following issues: the portrayal of migrants and refugees during election campaigns and on the need for a code of good practice in the field of funding of electoral campaigns. I am sure that the members of the CIS Assembly will find many useful ideas in these reports and I look forward to the opportunity of discussing these issues more closely with you in the future.

Dear colleagues,

Let me now focus on the main question which is on the table today: how can we establish if an election really is free and fair?

This is exactly an area where election observation comes into play. Election observation increases public confidence in the democratic process and the democratic institutions. The very presence of trusted observers exerts pressure on the protagonists of the political process to set up a proper framework and respect the rules.

Today, there is a real proliferation of observer delegations and groups involved in election observation. This is why on many occasions we have stressed that it is of crucial importance to agree on common standards and methods for election observation. Of course, these standards, , have to be based on the principles and values that are essential in a democracy.

As far as the standards are concerned, over the years, the Council of Europe and our Parliamentary Assembly have made a huge contribution to their development, working extensively with our international partners. Today, the Code of Good Practice on Electoral Matters has become an internationally recognised set of standards for assessing the conduct of elections. Drawing inspiration from this document, the Council of Europe Venice Commission recently adopted a Code of Good Practice on Referendums which observers use in their work. On the basis of these two documents, we adopted concrete rules for our parliamentary delegations which observe elections.

In accordance with our rules, “the observation of elections plays an important role in the assessment of the overall political situation in the country in question”. That means that we cannot assess the voting process on Election Day outside the wider context of electoral legislation and campaign environment. We observe elections as a political process and, I have to stress, that this approach is now supported by a great number of international institutions involved in election observation.

Dear colleagues,

That being said, using the same standards of reference is not enough. We should also try to harmonise, as much as possible, our approaches to assessing the free and fair character of elections. In the past, it was not uncommon that different observer missions issued statements that could be interpreted as contradictory. This provides room for forum shopping and playing one institution against the other.

To avoid creating such situations, we have adopted the concept of institutional partnership, within the framework of the International Election Observation Mission (IEOM). An International Election Observation Mission normally comprises observer delegations from PACE, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the OSCE ODIHR, the European Parliament, and, on occasion, NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

Overall, our co-operation with our institutional partners in election observation was largely successful. This is especially important because the roles and contribution of the different institutions involved are complementary. While the political bodies, such as our Parliamentary Assembly, provide a political assessment of the electoral process, using their personal political experience as democratically elected politicians, expert bodies, such as the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE, can ensure long-term presence in the field in order to make a comprehensive expert assessment of the campaign environment in which the elections are held. Therefore, I am very much in support of the continuation of this practice in future election observations.

Over the last couple of years, the Parliamentary Assembly has strengthened its own capacity to organise election observations, using its own resources. We can rely, of course, on the legal advice of the Venice Commission, as regards electoral legislation, as well as on our pre-electoral missions which we dispatch roughly one month before the Election Day in order to assess the campaign environment. On Election Day, we deploy delegations of up to 40 members, which is, by the way, the number of observers that will monitor the State Duma elections in December this year.

Dear colleagues, Dear friends,

In concluding my speech, let me share with you some thoughts about the future of our co-operation in election observation. One of the political priorities of the Council of Europe and of the Parliamentary Assembly is to develop relations with our neighbours. Therefore, in June 2011, the Parliament of the Kingdom of Morocco became our first “Partner for Democracy” and, in October 2011, we granted the status of Partner for Democracy to the Palestinian National Council. In accordance with our Rules, we are now observing elections in our partner states. Thus, an Assembly delegation is going to observe parliamentary elections in Morocco which will be held on 25 November 2011. Furthermore, we have already successfully organised a comprehensive observation of the elections of the constitutional assembly in Tunisia.

At the same time, I have to say that the interest in the partnership status with the Assembly is growing not only around the Mediterranean. Last week, I received an official formal request to be granted partnership status from the Parliament of the Kyrgyz Republic. On 30 October 2011, a delegation from our Assembly observed presidential elections in the Kyrgyz Republic within the framework of an International Election Observation Mission. We also observed elections in Kazakhstan in May this year, on the basis of a co-operation agreement we have signed with the Parliament of Kazakhstan.

Given our growing involvement in this region, I believe that there will be more avenues for contacts, as well as for concrete co-operation, between the observer delegations from the PACE and the Assembly of the CIS. The CIS Parliamentary Assembly recently established an International Institute for the Monitoring of the Development of Democracy which provides the CIS Assembly’s observers with an assessment of the electoral framework and campaign environment. I am sure that in the future your experts will share valuable experience with our colleagues from the Assembly and I hope that this seminar will be a good opportunity to explore together possibilities for such co-operation.

Dear colleagues, dear friends, these are in short a few issues I wanted to share with you today. I wish you a very successful seminar and look forward to continuing our discussion in the future.

Thank you for your attention.