The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) - the only international organisation permitted to observe the Bulgarian parliamentary elections on June 17 - is optimistic about the event.

"The situation looks pretty good so far, but you can never be sure, no elections can be absolutely pure," said Ambassador Charles Magee, head of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission to Bulgaria

The OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has sent a six-member election observation team to Bulgaria. The group arrived on May 19 and is to stay until June 22. "We want to be sure that everything is in keeping with the broadly recognised European democratic principles," said Magee. The observers will do this through studying the existing legislative framework and election administration, the election environment and campaign, the media coverage, and finally, the Election Day and voting procedures.

In addition to the six visiting observers, there are four foreign long-term observers, stationed in Plovdiv, Pleven, Varna and Sofia. Among their obligations is observing the Regional Election Commissions in all the constituencies in their regions.

This election observation team may find itself missing the usual group from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, however. "We found our office in competition for observers with the Albanian one - parliamentary elections will be held in Albania on June 24. Most observers seem to be attracted more to Albania, maybe because they expect more excitement, more problems there, Magee said."

On the night of the elections, the OSCE mission will issue a preliminary report on the events and, about a month later, a comprehensive report will be published. "We try to offer constructive criticism," he said. "We do not only criticise - we also offer recommendations.

"So far, we think you have a pretty good election law, and the CEC's work is very good, the people are very experienced."

Bulgaria has had a very good record of elections in the last nine years, said Magee. "The fact that the government invited us to observe these elections says that they expect everything to go well again." The OSCE only sends full-fledged missions by official state invitation.

"The idea is that eventually we won't need to come anymore," he explained. "One of the requirements for this is a large number of domestic observers. We are still waiting for the Central Election Commission to come up with a decision on the Bulgarian observers. This is a concern to us."

Two of the three Bulgarian organisations that were registered with the CEC to observe the elections, will be unable to do so. The chairman of the Association of Young Lawyers in Bulgaria (AULB) and one of the heads of the Bulgarian Association for Fair Elections and Civil Rights (BAFECR) are both on the list of MP candidates of the National Movement Simeon II.

Last week, AULB decided not to participate as observers because of this conflict of interest. On Wednesday, the CEC decided that BAFECR would not be allowed to observe the elections for the same reason. Presently, only one Bulgarian organisation - the Civic Initiative for Free and Democratic Elections - is sure to be an observer. They want to have 10,000 observers throughout the country.