5. Welcomes President Saakashvili’s statement, to accept his party’s defeat in the elections and underlines that this statement in such an early stage after the elections gives a positive signal with regard to democracy in Georgia;

Meanwhile, 22 of Mr Kibaki’s ministers, who aspired to be MPs, were defeated at the elections.

This time the opposition won the parliamentary elections, but it seems that the proposed recount is designed to rob them of their victory. The result of the presidential election has been kept secret for a full month already, so the size of Mugabe's defeat remains unknown.

whereas the abovementioned Commission Communication of 11 April 2000 represented a turning point in the EU's approach to election observation, establishing a comprehensive methodology covering the complete election process, from the pre-election to the post-election phase, which has proven to be a great success and has resulted in the EU becoming a leading organisation in the field of international election observation,

whereas election observation is a long-term process comprising three periods: the pre-election phase, election day and the post-election phase, and whereas each of these periods should be analysed rigorously and impartially on the basis of first-hand data,

Considers, in the light of this, that election observation is merely a first step towards democracy and that it needs to be complemented by other, adequately funded activities and post-electoral measures for the promotion of democracy, in particular through capacity-building for national parliaments, political parties, the civil service, non-State actors and civil society, and through the promotion of human rights and good governance; therefore requests the maintenance of the budgetary ceiling agreed by the Commission of around 25 % of EIDHR for EU EOMs over the seven-year period of the Financial Framework 2007-2013; asks the Commissio ...[+++]n to set aside, within this budgetary framework, allocations for preparatory activities in anticipation of elections, including the training of local election monitors, voter education and other activities which are essential for the long-term establishment of free and fair elections.