The six-member mission is already present in Slovakia and communicates with the Slovak Election Committee and the Interior Ministry, as well as with the parties running in the election, the SITA newswire wrote on February 26.
OSCE/ODIHR members visited Slovakia already in January, to learn about the new election legislation effective in Slovakia; this new legislation is the main reason for their attendance at the election, as they want to see how it is applied in practice.
Slovakia’s membership in the OSCE includes the duty to invite observers of this organisation to each election; the last regular general election, in June of 2010, was observed by an 11-member OSCE mission; the early election on March 10, 2012, however, was not observed by any foreign mission.