Page:Report on the Elections of the Kosovo Assembly 23 October 2004 Cgbur 11 74 E public.pdf/14

 s. Domestic observers

There are two main domestic election observation organisations: Kosovo Action Civil Initiative (KACI) and the Council for the Defence of Democracy and Human Rights (KMDLNJ) have been involved in previous elections in co-operation in different degrees with OSCE and other international organisations both on observation, voter education, training of election officials and public awareness. For the moment KMDLNJ is fielding approximately 100 observers but nearer to and on Election Day they will have approximately 2,500 in the field.

The current President of KACI has recently become the President and one of the most prominent candidates of the newly founded political entity ORA, thus creating a potential conflict of interest, which presumably will be resolved in the near future.

Political entities and journalists are authorised to be present as observers in polling stations, upon accreditation by the CEC.

5. THE ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN

This had been calm, surprisingly so given the difficult political environment.

Through the limited discussions held by members of the delegation with representatives of the political entities, there were very few complaints about access to media. The Council of Europe observation mission had closely monitored the campaign, since its beginning one month prior to polling and had observed no significant problem.

However, much of the campaign centred on the personalities of political leaders, rather on distinct political platforms, many of which were indistinguishable one from another. Most of the Kosovo–Albanian political entities put independence at the top of their programme, but there were some newer political parties emerging which emphasised economic and social development as much as independence.

6. THE DAY OF POLLING

Starting from the opening at 0700, the delegation visited over 70 polling stations in their respective areas of responsibility.

No major problem or incident was encountered.

All the electoral material had been delivered safely the previous day; the polling station committees were in place and understood their job. The urns had been properly sealed, the voting booths were correctly supervised, the ballot papers stamped before being distributed, the lists of the political entities were displayed, the procedures seemed to be understood adequately by voters.

The delegation saw no blatant cases of family voting and areas in the immediate vicinity of polling stations were free of electoral propaganda.