Mimicking Election Observation: The Politics Of Parallel Election Monitoring

Abstract

In the 2000s, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) began conducting election observation missions in Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) participating states. Given the OSCE’s existing monitoring activities in the region, the question arises as to why the CIS began observing in parallel, how CIS activities differ from OSCE missions, and what impact they have. This article argues that parallel election observation is a form of liberal mimicry, a power-political strategy of low intensity aimed at fragmenting and discrediting practices of democracy promotion and liberal international ordering. Seemingly identifying with liberal–democratic scripts, the mimicking agent fills them with new meaning. The findings are based on 13 interviews with high-level practitioners and an examination of 16 CIS and OSCE preliminary statements on elections in Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Serbia, and Azerbaijan (2007–2024). CIS parallel observation practices focus on national legislation over international commitments, narratives of pluralism, government legitimacy, the impact of deficiencies on the final result, and a rejection of “Western” universalism and overly technical approaches. Key communication practices of the CIS are modeled on the OSCE, while they differ significantly in terms of endorsing or criticizing elections. The findings identify practices of fragmentation and competition and provide a case study of how liberal international ordering is contested.