LAST UPDATE | 6 Nov

PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD Trump’s campaign was marked by “disinformation and instances of violence, including harsh and intolerant language against women and immigrants”, OSCE Special Co-ordinator Pia Kauma said. 

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) deployed a Limited Election Observation Mission to examine yesterday’s election. 

Led by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the mission assessed the elections for compliance with OSCE commitments and other international obligations and standards, as well as with national legislation.

In a press conference this evening, three panellists outlined their key findings. 

“The 5 November general elections demonstrated the resilience of the country’s democratic institutions with the well run process in a highly polarised environment, candidates campaigning freely across the country and voters engaging actively,” Kauma, a Finnish MP, said this evening.

“The campaign was marked by disinformation and instances of violence, including harsh and intolerant language against women and immigrants by one candidate,” she said. “Repeated unfounded claims about election fraud negatively impacted the public trust.”

The head of the mission and former MEP for Hungary, Tamás Meszerics, said that the presidential campaigns were “vigorous” but marked by harsh and confrontational rhetoric, including personal attacks.

“In many instances, the rhetoric was particularly toxic on the part of one of the candidates, who employed violent and intolerant language targeting immigrants and women.

“Repeated accusations of past and potential electoral fraud, most of which has been deemed unfounded by various courts, has contributed to the further erosion of public trust in the democratic process.

“Not coincidentally, we noted an increase in the number of threats and harassment of election administration workers the closer we got to election day,” Meszerics said.

Kauma said that women remain “significantly underrepresented” as candidates and in high-elected office.

Kauma added that amongst other observations made by OSCE, it was observed that efforts were taken to ensure election integrity and election officials “conducted their duties professionally despite numerous threats against them.” 

The election, which saw former president Donald Trump reclaim the White House in a mighty win, featured fiery debates, an assassination attempt, a second alleged assassination attempt, and a host of celebrity endorsements.

The record high campaign spend in this election amplified concerns over unregulated financial contributions and “disproportionate advantages” for candidates with extensive funding, a concern that was later echoed by her colleague, Head of Delegation Pere Joan Pons. 

In August, Harris’ presidential campaign said that it had raised more than half a billion dollars in just over a month, “a record for any campaign in history.”

“These elections were a demonstration of the resilience of America’s democratic institutions as public engagement overcame repeated unfounded claims of elections fraud and divisive rhetoric, especially in this contagious campaign environment,” Kauma finished.

Pere Joan Pons, a Spanish Senator, said that the record high campaign spends appears to be part of “persistent campaign inflation”. He said that regulations surrounding campaign financing would benefit from amendment to “avoid inequality”.

Among other findings by the OSCE mission, which involved the deployment of experts to observe the conduction of the election, was the disenfranchisement of over 6 million US citizens, “at least at the level of federal representation”.