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In an initiative that Spiegel Online describes as "Unprecedented!" — the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is preparing to send 12 observers to monitor the legal compliance of campaigns, media coverage and the 27 September vote in Germany's general elections. As the website of the German weekly goes on to explain, the OSCE's monitoring of "the preparation of free and fair elections" is nothing new in countries with dodgy reputations or very new democracies, but its request "to monitor the conduct of general elections in Germany" is to say the least unexpected. The initiative comes in response to a number of controversial decisions to exclude small parties, on the basis of legal technicalities, or an insufficient number of supporting signatures. For an expert in German constitutional law quoted by Spiegel, these are "misguided decisions that should be set to rights," otherwise Germany may "run the risk of having to repeat the election."
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