VZCZCXRO6612
OO RUEHAST RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHLA RUEHMRE RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHVEN #0353/01 2561413
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 131413Z SEP 07
FM USMISSION USOSCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5195
INFO RUCNOSC/ORG FOR SECURITY CO OP IN EUR COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUEHPS/USOFFICE PRISTINA IMMEDIATE 0686
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK IMMEDIATE 0325
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC IMMEDIATE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 USOSCE 000353 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DPT FOR EUR, EUR/SCE, DRL, INL AND S/WCI, NSC FOR BRAUN, 
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OSCE PGOV PREL KV
SUBJECT: OSCE COMMITTED TO MAKING KOSOVO ELECTIONS HAPPEN 
ON SCHEDULE BUT WORRIES REMAIN 
 
REF: PRISTINA 000668 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
¶1. (SBU) The OSCE Mission in Kosovo (OMiK) says it is fully 
committed to doing its part to ensure that the November 17 
local and central elections come off successfully and on 
schedule.  Nonetheless, key OMiK officials are worried that 
they may not be able to overcome a number of logistical 
hurdles, including the need to outsource ballot printing, in 
the two months remaining before the elections.  OMiK has 
given a lukewarm response to the IOM's offer to help organize 
and extend the vote to the Kosovan diaspora.  End Summary. 
 
OMIK's Big Worry:  Printing and Distributing Ballots 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Well-placed sources within OMiK paint a picture of 
an OSCE field mission pulling on all oars to put in place all 
the conditions necessary for free, fair, and successful 
municipal and central elections on November 17.  While key 
OMiK staff members say the mission is fully committed to 
fulfilling their responsibilities, they confess to being 
frustrated and worried that the Mission may not be able to 
overcome certain logistical and technical hurdles outside of 
its control in the two months remaining before the elections. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) OMiK's principle worry appears to be getting the 
ballots printed and distributed throughout Kosovo on time. 
While the deadline for submitting candidate lists expired on 
September 12, finalizing the ballots, two OMiK sources said, 
may not be possible for nearly another month given the 
complexity of sorting through, vetting, and ordering the 
lists for three separate polls (parliamentary, municipal, and 
mayoral) and the requirement to let the appeals process run 
its legally-mandated course.  Once the ballots have been 
finalized, the mission will have to send them outside of 
Kosovo to be printed since there is no local printing 
facility capable of producing the ballots with the necessary 
security features to prevent fraud.  Estimates for printing 
the ballots have ranged from 21 to 45 days, and none of the 
printing facilities that OMiK has approached will give the 
Mission a guarantee that they can deliver the ballots on 
time.  Once the ballots are delivered to Kosovo, OMiK claims 
at least three days will be necessary to distribute the 
ballots in a controlled manner to all the polling stations 
throughout Kosovo. 
 
IOM Proposes Helping with Diaspora Vote . . . 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Peter Von Bethlenfalvy, the IOM's mission director 
in Vienna, met with USOSCE DCM Kyle Scott on September 11 to 
ask U.S. government support in enlisting the IOM to organize 
voting outside of Kosovo for the Kosovan diaspora.  Von 
Bethlenfalvy estimated that there were between 300-400 
thousand Kosovans of voting age currently living outside of 
Kosovo, with sizable expatriate populations in Germany, 
Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Sweden, Slovenia, and the 
U.S., and argued that it would be unfair for the 
international community to exclude such a significant voting 
block from participating in the elections. 
 
¶5. (SBU)  He expressed confidence that the IOM has the 
expertise, ability, and time to organize polling for the 
expatriate population, as it has done in past elections in 
Kosovo, but so far lacked an invitation from the OSCE to do 
so.  Specifically, Von Bethlenfalvy claimed the IOM could 
register expatriate voters, check and confirm their identity, 
establish voting locations, conduct voter outreach and 
education, and ensure the security and integrity of the vote 
abroad.  Doing so, he admitted, would not come cheap -- he 
estimated that the IOM would need around 2 million euros to 
organize elections outside of the country.  He added that he 
had passed IOM's proposal informally with OSCE Secretary 
General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut and ODIHR Director 
Christian Strohal, but since neither had given him the 
expectation that an invitation would be forthcoming, he had 
decided to bring the issue to our attention directly. 
 
. . . but OMiK's Lukewarm to IOM's Offer 
 
USOSCE 00000353  002 OF 002 
 
 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) USOSCE has passed IOM's proposal to our contacts in 
both the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna and in the field mission 
but we sense that both may regard the initiative at this late 
date as difficult to actualize and not worth the effort.  One 
particularly well-placed source within OMiK questioned 
whether organizing voting for the diaspora was really worth 
the time, effort, and money given the relatively meager 
participation of the expatriate community in previous 
elections. 
 
¶7. (U) Background: To date, OMiK has organized and supervised 
four elections in Kosovo:  at the municipal level in 2000 and 
2002, and at the central level in 2001 and 2004.  While 
elections are a reserved responsibility of UNMiK delegated to 
the OSCE, the Mission has progressively transferred 
responsibility for the administration of the election to 
local election institutions.  OMiK Head of Mission Werner 
Wnendt, however, continues to chair the Central Elections 
Commission, and remains responsible for monitoring the 
preparation and conduct of the elections and for intervening 
as necessary to prevent or remedy any potential misconduct or 
deviation from electoral rules.  For this reason, as 
explained in ref, ODIHR will not be leading the election 
monitoring mission. 
 
Comment: 
-------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) It is no secret that both OSCE Secretary General de 
Brichambaut and OMiK Head of Mission Werner Wnendt regret 
that the field mission was only given two-and-a-half months 
to help organize these elections rather than the full four 
months they said were necessary to prepare adequately. 
USOSCE defers to our colleagues in USOP who are closer to the 
problem, but from our vantage point in Vienna we believe that 
both the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna and the field mission in 
Kosovo, despite their belly-aching, do not want to let the 
international community down and are expending maximum effort 
to prepare Kosovo to hold elections on November 17 as 
scheduled.  We also defer to Washington and Pristina on 
whether an IOM role in the elections at this late day is 
worth pursuing, and are prepared to push the OSCE from Vienna 
if the answer is yes. 
SCOTT