The senator spoke at the international conference on election observation, where she delivered the Federation Council Speaker's address.
Deputy Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs Yelena Afanaseva delivered an address from Federation Council Speaker, Chair of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly (IPA CIS) Council Valentina Matvienko to participants at the Building Trust in the Institution of Elections and Referendums: The Role of International Observation international scientific and practical conference.
The conference is dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the IPA CIS International Institute for Monitoring the Democracy Development, Parliamentarism, and Suffrage Protection (IIMDR).
“Over the past 20 years, the institute has become an authoritative centre for the development and practical implementation of scientifically grounded methodologies for international election and referendum observation,” Valentina Matvienko noted in her address.
According to the Federation Council Speaker, the institute’s depoliticised, impartial, and productive work helps ensure trust in electoral processes both within the Commonwealth and beyond.
“This is especially important in light of the growing tendency among certain countries and associations to use international election observation mechanisms to influence the domestic policies of states, including CIS countries. Such actions can only be countered through joint efforts.”
The Federation Council Speaker expressed confidence that the conference would serve as a platform for an in-depth discussion of new approaches to improving democratic electoral standards and the principles of international election monitoring, and that it would contribute to the further development of electoral practices and observation mechanisms in the Commonwealth countries.
Other speakers at the plenary session included the chairs of central election commissions of the CIS countries and Dmitry Kobitsky, Secretary General of the IPA CIS Council.
Yelena Afanaseva also participated in the Elections and Referendums: Searching for an Optimal Observation Model discussion session. The senator expressed the view that European institutions involved in monitoring elections and referendums had effectively become key mechanisms for exerting pressure on the sovereignty of independent states. In particular, she referred to the activities of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. “The electoral monitoring institutions created by the West over recent decades within the framework of the so-called rules-based order are, in fact, instruments of electoral neocolonialism.”
The parliamentarian emphasised that the election assessment system developed within the CIS was based on a solid legal foundation endorsed by the Commonwealth countries.
“First and foremost, this includes the CIS Convention on Standards of Democratic Elections. Election observation is carried out on the principles of respect for state sovereignty, impartiality, effective assistance, and non-interference in the electoral process. This enables the states party to the Convention to effectively safeguard their electoral sovereignty,” Yelena Afanaseva noted.
Ivan Mushket, Deputy Head of the IPA CIS Council Secretariat, Director of the IPA CIS International Institute for Monitoring the Democracy Development, Parliamentarism, and Suffrage Protection, and Igor Petrishenko, First Deputy Secretary General of the CIS, also spoke during the discussion.
The conference, held in St Petersburg, is organised by the Interparliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Advisory Council of Heads of Electoral Bodies of CIS Member States.