ZIF honoured German election observers - Minister of State Dr Anna Lührmann gave the keynote speech
On 20 November 2024, ZIF celebrated ‘Election Observation Day’ and invited the local election observation community to workshops and discussions at the Tagungswerk in Berlin. Dr Anna Lührmann, Minister of State for Europe and Climate at the Federal Foreign Office and Chair of the ZIF Supervisory Board, gave the laudatory speech. In the super election year 2024, ZIF has already deployed over 340 election observers to missions of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Office for Human Rights and Democratic Institutions (ODIHR) and the European Union (EU).
The panel discussions and workshops focussed on sharing experiences and current trends in the field. For example, professional and transparent election observation is increasingly confronted with so-called ‘fake observation’, i.e. politically motivated election observation, which threatens to undermine election observation as a whole. Topics such as the observation of election campaigns on social media, disinformation or intelligence service attempts to get in contact with observers on missions were also discussed.
Minister of State thanks the participants for their commitment
Minister of State Dr Anna Lührmann, who herself has experience as an election observer, thanked the participants for their commitment to democracy. In her laudatory speech, she spoke of increasing polarisation in election campaigns, including the integrity of the election process itself and the need to constantly adapt the instrument of election observation to international developments. Influencing elections usually takes place long beforehand, for example by structurally disadvantaging opposition parties or civil society during the election campaign. She also emphasised the particular value of mission reports following election observations, which are repeatedly used in EU accession talks, for example.
‘As election observers, we are not just silent witnesses, but active defenders of democratic principles. Our presence makes a difference,’ said Dr Astrid Irrgang, Managing Director of ZIF, in her speech. She emphasised the important role of ZIF: ‘Our experts are deployed in all regions of the world - committed, neutral and with a clear goal: to protect democracy and defuse conflicts through preventive measures.’ She also thanked the election observers for the time and passion they invest in their often voluntary work.
ZIF deployed over 340 election observers in 2024
In Germany, ZIF is responsible for deploying election observers. ZIF selects suitable candidates, prepares them for their assignments in training courses and then deploys them to OSCE/ODIHR and EU missions. In 2024, there were almost 300 short-term election observers, who work on a voluntary basis and travel to the country for election day, and 45 long-term election observers, who are employed by ZIF and spend several weeks on the ground. This year, Germany participated through ZIF with large contingents in election observation in Georgia, Moldova, North Macedonia, Azerbaijan and the USA, among others. Since ZIF was founded in 2002, more than 6,700 election observers have been deployed. You can find more information about election observation at ZIF here.
Minister of State Dr Anna Lührmann during her laudatory speech
Panel discussion with Vladimir Misev, Senior Adviser on New Voting Technologies at the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR); Michael Meyer-Resende, Managing Director of Democracy Reporting International (DRI) and Stephanie Schiffer, Director of European Exchange gGmbH; moderated by Dr Astrid Irrgang, Executive Director of ZIF
Group photo with all participants of the Election Observation Day
Pinboard with the participants' last election observation missions
Workshop on disinformation with Michael Meyer-Resende, Managing Director of Democracy Reporting International (DRI); moderated by Irene Thiede, Deputy Head of the Human Resources team at ZIF