External
voting can often be controversial. For example, opposition parties may claim
that it is being used by the incumbents in support of the governing parties,
either by allowing (or not allowing) the external vote, or because in the way
the process is implemented, which may not be seen to be sufficiently
transparent.
If an
election is being observed, an assessment of the external voting is an integral
part of the process. That does not, however, mean that the process needs to be
assessed by observers at every step, even if this is practically possible. One
example would be the external voting in Croatia. Shortly before the
legislative elections in 1995 the election law was amended to include 12
members of the parliament to be elected by Croatians living abroad. The
citizenship law permitted any ethnic Croat to obtain Croatian citizenship
without having a family or territorial connection to the Republic
of Croatia and without having any
intention to move to Croatia.
The only condition was that the person issued a written statement stating ‘that
he or she considers himself or herself to be a Croatian citizen’. The result
and intention of the rule were that more than 300,000 Croats from neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina
acquired Croatian citizenship and were given the right to vote. The opposition
claimed that the incumbents allowed this trusting that the Croats in Herzegovina
would vote in favour of nationalistic parties. The political and legal
conditions for the external voting were therefore more important than the
technical conduct of the election.
For the
Croatian presidential elections in 1997, the OSCE/ODIHR decided not to observe
the external voting. The voting took place in polling stations across Herzegovina and some other cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and, with an OSCE mission
well established in Bosnia
and Herzegovina, a high-quality observation
operation would have been possible to organize. Given the general framework and
the unusual (and, seen from Bosnia and Herzegovina, one would argue,
unfriendly) citizenship rules, the main issue was not how the elections were
carried out, but rather that they were allowed to happen at all.
For the
Croatian legislative elections in 2000, the external voting was observed by the
OSCE/ODIHR, partly because there was some development in the discussions
between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina
regarding the citizenship issue, and partly because the parties to the
discussions wanted this part of the process to be observed as well.
Even if
there is general agreement on allowing external voting, the process itself may
be difficult to observe. External votes are often not cast in person, and the
arrangements can cover a large geographical area. The considerations regarding
the observation of external voting would therefore involve logistical and
practical issues. In the end it is important that an observation mission does
not draw conclusions that cannot be substantiated by the evidence that has been
collected from the process.
