French Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that it has invited the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to send an electoral monitoring mission during the French presidential elections.

"In conformity with its international commitments, France has invited OSCE, whose expertise in electoral matters is well known and its human rights and democratic institutions Bureau (BIDDH) to organize an electoral monitoring mission for the presidential elections," the foreign ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei affirmed during a press briefing.

Such a monitoring mission must distinguish from "electoral observation missions" carried out by OSCE in other countries, Mattei noted, saying "the objectives of monitoring missions is to examine certain aspects of the electoral process and to enable the observers, especially those coming from countries in transition, to familiarize themselves with electoral practices of countries with an established democratic tradition."

Like the monitoring mission conducted in 2002, BIDDH's mission will comprise of 11 people, led by a Canadian, Loren Wells, director of an election observation institute in Ottawa, the spokesman said.

This mission will also consist of nationals from Austria, Byelorussia, Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Kazakhstan, Moldavia, Norway and the United States, according to him.

The mission is currently visiting Paris, Lyon and Marseille, ahead of the first round of the presidential elections. Some members of the mission will nevertheless remain in France until after the second round scheduled to take place on May 6. A report will make public by BIDDH approximately six week after the polls, he added.

Source: Xinhua