16/01/2012 Election observation
16.01.2012 – A seven-member delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is to make a “post-electoral visit” to Russia on 20 and 21 January.
The delegation – made up of one member from each of the Assembly’s five political groups as well as the two rapporteurs for the monitoring of Russia – will be visiting the country on the eve of the Assembly’s winter plenary session in Strasbourg (23-27 January), where a report on the observation of Russia’s parliamentary elections is due to be discussed. There has also been a request for a separate urgent debate on the topic “The Russian Federation between two elections”(*).
In Moscow, the delegation is due to meet the Speaker of the State Duma Serguei Naryshkin and the Chair of the Central Election Commission Vladimir Churov. Meetings are also foreseen with the leaderships of:
• the four political parties represented in the new Duma (United Russia, the Communist Party, the Liberal Democratic Party and Just Russia);
• parties that ran in the election but did not cross the 7 per cent threshold (Yabloko, Patriots of Russia and the Right Cause Party);
• civil society groups that were denied registration as political parties (PARNAS, the Left Front, Other Russia).
The delegation is also due to meet representatives of GOLOS, the Moscow Helsinki Group and the Moscow Human Rights Institute.
Members of the delegation will give a press conference at 1pm on Saturday 21 January at the Interfax news agency in Moscow.
Members of the delegation
From each political group:
- Marietta de Pourbaix-Lundin (Sweden, EPP/CD)
- Indrek Saar (Estonia, SOC)
- Øyvind Vaksdal (Norway, EDG)
- Andrea Rigoni (Italy, ALDE)
- Tiny Kox (Netherlands, UEL), head of delegation
Monitoring co-rapporteurs:
- György Frunda (Romania, EPP/CD)
- Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC)
Contact:
Angus Macdonald, PACE Communication Division
Mobiles: +79150765726 or +33 6 30 49 68 20.
(*). The Assembly will decide on the first day of the session whether or not to hold this debate.