COPENHAGEN, 18 December 2025 – The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly has just published its annual report on election observation activities for 2025, detailing the deployment of missions to monitor key elections in Romania, Albania, Moldova, and Kyrgyzstan.

A total of 292 observers, including 211 members of parliament from across the OSCE region, participated in these efforts to promote democratic standards and transparency, identifying a number of trends including a growing concern over foreign interference in electoral processes.

The PA has highlighted in particular concerns such as foreign interference, online inauthentic behavior, restrictive campaign environments, insufficient transparency, disparities in campaign financing, limitations on the rights to freedom of assembly and association, challenges of out-of-country voting, illicit financing, cyber-attacks, and disinformation.

The OSCE PA conducted three full election observation missions in 2025 and one limited election observation mission. The missions covered:

• Romania’s repeat presidential election (first round on 4 May and second round on 18 May)
• Albania’s parliamentary elections (11 May)
• Moldova’s parliamentary elections (28 September)
• Kyrgyzstan’s parliamentary elections (30 November)

OSCE PA President Pere Joan Pons (Spain) stressed that election observation remains a cornerstone of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s work to strengthen democracy and public trust in electoral processes across the participating States.

“While our observers have continued to identify persistent challenges, we have also highlighted new issues that require attention,” President Pons said. “The frequency with which we have identified challenges related to external interference is seriously concerning. This requires dedicated attention by all our countries to protect our national democratic processes.”

The observers’ statement of preliminary findings and conclusions for the 28 September 2025 parliamentary elections in Moldova, for example, found that the elections “were competitive and offered voters a clear choice among political alternatives but the process was marred by serious cases of foreign interference,” noting that the Central Election Commission was “the target of foreign-based cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns.”

OSCE PA President Emeritus and Special Representative for Mediation and Election Observation Pia Kauma (Finland) added that the key to preventing democratic backsliding is a robust and vigilant follow-up process to act on the key findings and recommendations of election observers. “It is now up to governments with the support of civil society to take these observations and implement any necessary reforms,” Kauma said.

OSCE PA Special Representative on Disinformation and Propaganda Oscar Mina (San Marino) warned that disinformation, online inauthentic behaviour and digital manipulation pose growing threats to democratic processes.

“Often linked to foreign interference and cyber-attacks, these phenomena undermine public trust, fuel polarization and risk forcing societies into self-censorship,” Mina said. “Democracies must counter polarization by safeguarding freedom of expression and resisting the misuse of the ‘fake news’ narrative to restrict fundamental freedoms. Through dialogue and parliamentary diplomacy, OSCE countries must strengthen media literacy, promote media freedom and build resilience to protect credible, pluralistic elections.”

The new report shows that the nearly 300 participants in 2025 mark a continuation of strong parliamentary engagement in election observation, which is comparable to recent years. It also outlines the national composition of election observation missions and the gender breakdown of the delegations, notably demonstrating that women accounted for three-quarters of the leadership roles in 2025.

Last week, experts from the OSCE PA International Secretariat’s election department participated in the 20th Anniversary Implementation Meeting of the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation, which took place in Geneva, Switzerland. From 10-12 December, international partners met to review and reflect on 20 years of experience of the Declaration of Principles, with discussions centering on urgent and evolving challenges, including geopolitical polarization, democratic backsliding, increasing funding constraints, and the growing trend towards digital threats and disinformation in elections.

The PA joined partners in reaffirming commitments to independent and objective election observation as a vital means of support for countries in holding genuinely democratic elections.

In accordance with the Declaration of Principles, the endorsing organizations recalled that international observation “is conducted for the benefit of the citizens of the country holding the election” as “it is the people of a country who ultimately determine credibility and legitimacy of an election process.”

For more information on the OSCE PA’s election observation activities, please click here.