OSCE worried over cutback in observers for Russia's polls
Published 01 November, 2007, 05:37
The main international election watchdog has expressed concern over Russia's decision to restrict the number of international observers when the country goes to the polls in December. The delegation from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has been cut more than four-fold to 70 people.
The OSCE says this could seriously limit proper observation of the election.
On Wednesday, Russia's Central Election Committee started to send out invitations to monitor the election.
It decided to reduce the number of observers to 400, as compared with over a thousand during the previous campaign in 2003.
Moscow says this number is enough as even smaller delegations were sent to the U.S, Poland and the Baltic countries.
It added that it is up to Russia to decide on how many people to invite.
discuss it
