OSCE Findings

Even though the official OSCE reports on the October 15, 2008 Presidential elections will take approximately two months to complete, there has been findings by the OSCE. These findings indicated an overall improved electoral process with a few shortcomings. Most of the improvement in this year's election was with the election administration process; observers indicated that there was less interference by the authorities during the process, violence free atmosphere, there was transparency due to the increased presence of international and local non-partisan observers and party lists were available to the public within deadlines. On the other hand there were problems with the existing Election Code, it did not cover matters that might have made a difference in this year's election, these problems included candidate registration matters, media coverage and complaints and appeals processes. While certain changes by the CEC on the election code improved this year's election administration, there is no way to completely assure voting irregularities or violations.

http://www.osce.org/documents/odihr/2008/10/34414_en.pdf