Foreign observation of the illegitimate presidential election in Crimea in March 2018
Reputable monitoring organisations did not send any missions to observe the Russian presidential election in Crimea held on the 18th of March 2018. Aiming to give domestic and international legitimacy to the election in Crimea, the Russian authorities invited, via a number of organisations, 43 foreign observers who obtained accreditation from the CEC and illegally […]
300 observers monitored the presidential election upon individual invitation from the Russian parliament
Preliminary report on the Kremlin-friendly international electoral observation Several established organisations monitored the Russian presidential election on the 18th of March 2018. These included (1) the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States, (2) Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, (3) Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia, (4) […]
Media hate campaign against EPDE
The European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE) is committed to free and democratic elections throughout Europe, including in Russia. It represents the interests of civil society and independent European election observation organisations. Because of this commitment, EPDE has become the target of orchestrated smear and defamation campaigns by the Russian media in the run-up to […]
DRA on the listing of EPDE and IESC as “undesirable” organisations
The German-Russian Exchange (DRA) declares solidarity with EPDE and IESC, and their striving to promote independent non-governmental international election observation, which can contribute to the legitimacy of fair elections. DRA protests against the prohibition of the organisations in Russia and asserts in the statement that the activities of EPDE and its member organisations must be […]
Reactions on the listing of EPDE as an “undesirable” organisation in the Russian Federation
On 13 March 2018, the European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE), a civil society network of independent election observation organizations, and its Lithuanian member International Elections Study Center (IESC) were classified as “undesirable organizations” by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. Several key international media reported on the topic. EPDE’s protest against this decision […]
GOLOS preliminary statement based on the results of presidential election observation
The movement “Golos” carried out long- and short-term observation at all stages of the election campaign during the 2018 presidential race in the Russian Federation. On election day, the “United Call Center Hotline” received more than six thousand calls. The “Map of Violations” crowdsourcing service received three thousand messages during the entire campaign, including […]
Statement by the Board of the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum
The Board of the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum expresses its outrage about the inclusion of two civil society initiatives – the European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE) and the International Elections Study Centre (IESC), an EPDE member from Lithuania, in the list of “undesirable organisations” in Russia. We call on the Russian authorities to reverse […]
Preliminary report on the Kremlin-friendly international electoral observation
Several established organisations monitored the Russian presidential election on the 18th of March 2018. However, there were around 300 electoral observers who monitored the election upon individual invitations from the State Duma and Federation Council. Preliminary research suggests that these observers can be referred to as Kremlin-friendly, as their impressions about the electoral process were […]
Preliminary statement based on the results of election observation for the March 18, 2018 presidential elections in the Russian Federation
In the preliminarily assessment of the presidential elections, “Golos” acknowledges the definite strong result of the winning candidate but regretfully declares that the movement does not recognize these elections as truly fair, i.e. fully consistent with the Constitution, the laws of the Russian Federation, and international election standards because the election results were achieved in […]
EU calls on Russia to remove EPDE’s listing as “undesirable”
The European External Action Service (EEAS) has called on Russia to remove EPDE’s listing as an “undesirable organization”. This listing “further reduces the space for civil society and restricts the exercise of fundamental freedoms in Russia”, EEAS denounced. A statement by the EEAS spokesperson reads: “This week’s listing of the European Platform for Democratic Elections […]