Lithuania invites the OSCE to observe the upcoming Presidential elections
Implementing its international commitments, Lithuania invited the OSCE to observe the upcoming Presidential elections on 17 May 2009. This was announced by Permanent Representative of the Republic of Lithuania to the OSCE, Ambassador Renatas Norkus at the 747th meeting of the Permanent Council on 22 January 2009.
Observation of the elections in the OSCE participating states is organized by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), which has accumulated unique experience in the election observation. In the last decade the ODIHR organized around 150 of different level election observation missions, attracting thousands of experts and monitors from the whole OSCE region. In Lithuania the OSCE observed parliament elections in 1996.
Lithuania delegated 43 short-term observers to the ODIHR held election observation missions in 2007.
This year Lithuania took over the Chairmanship of the the OSCE Human Dimension Committee, the main tasks of which are preparation for the human dimension meetings, organization of the discussions about the implementation of the commitments by the member States, discussion of the cross-dimensional issues and preparation of the recommendations for the Permanent Council of the OSCE.
