Fighting Fake observation

EPDE defines fake observers as individuals who participate in election observation as accredited or non-accredited observers or ‘experts’ meeting any of the following criteria:

1. They fail to denounce the elections as short of meeting democratic standards despite ODIHR/OSCE PA monitoring missions or independent domestic election observers deeming them such.

2. They make statements or comments that lend legitimacy to the elections, contradicting the assessments of the aforementioned observation reports.

3. They are likely to have political, economic, or other conflicts of interest that would interfere with conducting observations impartially.

4. Their activities are restricted to short-term or isolated observations without clear and public acknowledgment of the limited scope of their work or conclusions. They fail to issue public reports on their findings and do not inform publicly about their methodology

5. They are likely to have travel and/or accommodation costs paid by governments, domestic politicians, or other domestic political actors or by individuals or organizations related to those individuals.

AND

Their presence can be confirmed by a picture or statement from a media outlet.