International Election Monitoring: A Critique Based on One Monitor’s Experience in Morocco
September 20, 2007 1:13 pm Articles by Henry Munson Available Online, MoroccoSince the early 1980s, countless teams of “international observers” have monitored elections in countries ostensibly becoming more democratic. Most monitors typically arrive shortly before voting begins and leave shortly after it ends. Foreign election observers usually visit only a small fraction of the polling sites and electoral districts. The capital and easily accessible cities tend to receive more attention than the countryside.
Most foreign observers know little about the political context of the elections they are observing. Too often they focus on the technical mechanics of elections while ignoring basic questions such as the role of voting in any real distribution of power. To term a technically flawless election to a parliament lacking effective power “free and fair” is misleading.