No OSCE election observers in US congressional elections

There will be no election observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in the US congressional elections in early November. For the first time, the US did not invite them, said the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). The US government's decision not to invite observers was a "significant departure from established democratic practice" and was "not consistent with the obligations" of OSCE members, the organization said.

A representative of Germany also expressed criticism of this. "If you want integrity in elections, you don't leave election observers out," said Metin Hakverdi (SPD), the federal government's transatlantic coordinator, to the Tagesspiegel. »The integrity of elections is currently often the subject of political debate in the USA. That makes the non-invitation all the more remarkable. According to the OSCE, observers from the organization have been deployed at the federal level in twelve US elections since 2002.

The so-called midterms, as the biennial elections are called in the USA, will take place on November 3rd. The members of the House of Representatives are elected for two years and a third of the senators are elected for six years. The election is seen as an important test of sentiment halfway through a US president's term in office. President Donald Trump and his Republicans have been struggling with poor poll numbers for months.