ISFED’s Sixth Interim Report on Pre-election Environment

The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), a local watchdog, released its sixth interim report on the pre-election environment the day before the October 31 parliamentary polls. According to the report, alleged incidents of pressure, threats, obstruction, as well as possible misuse of administrative resources and violent incidents were the key highlights of the October 22 – October 29 reporting period.

ISFED identified two alleged cases of politically motivated violence; 12 instances of alleged political pressure/threats; one alleged case of obstructing an observer’s activities; two supposed instances of vote-buying; two alleged dismissals on political grounds; eight possible cases of the misuse of administrative resources; three instances of participation of unauthorized persons and one announcement of a charity project.

The watchdog also identified various violations in the handling of the mobile ballot boxes, asserting that in some cases, political party coordinators filed applications for the box, instead of voters themselves. ISFED observers also found that the number of voters registered for mobile ballot boxes in some electoral districts was more than 3% of the total number of voters registered in those districts.

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