Right of Reply to the Russian Federation on the Invitation to Observe November 3 General Elections in the United States
As delivered by Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Gregory Macris
to the Permanent Council, Vienna
March 5, 2020
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
On the specific discussion points of the Russian Ambassador, I’d like to reserve the Right of Reply to come back to this at a later time, allowing us suitable time to study the points that he made.
Regarding more general points, I’d like to say that the United States supports ODIHR and its election observation methodology, which is considered the global “gold standard.”
ODIHR applies the same Needs Assessment Mission methodology to all elections. Based on ODIHR’s assessment on its meetings with a broad range of stakeholders in a given country, ODIHR determines whether and what type of election observation mission to send. ODIHR’s needs-based methodology ensures it can accomplish the task that we, the participating States, have mandated to it to achieve: professional, unbiased, and independent long-term and comprehensive election observation.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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