... Europe's top elections watchdog said Thursday. The cameras are a "very interesting idea," but they only will record what can be seen with eyes, Heidi Tagliavini, the head of the observer mission of the Organization of Security and Cooperation, or OSCE, told reporters, Interfax reported. She said it would be more interesting to see what the cameras don't show — like how the vote count is fixed in writing, how results are transmitted to the next level, how the data is stored and who has access...

... its presence would not "add value" given the limited freedoms and lack of political competition. "There is no private or independent electronic media and publication of the first private newspaper was permitted only recently," the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights said after an assessment mission in December. Turkmenistan has no opposition parties, and compliant state media extol the president daily. Rights groups rank the desert country, which borders Afghanistan...

... refusal to register opposition parties and "frequent procedural violations and manipulations, including ballot box-stuffing" on election day. However, like a previous report issued by the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe, or OSCE, the PACE report refrains from saying the elections failed to meet democratic standards nor does it question their legitimacy. The assembly, which brings together lawmakers from 47 countries, sent 34 people to observe the Dec. 4 vote. Moscow's delegation...

... between Prokhorov's policies and those he attributes to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. As part of his platform, Prokhorov calls for new State Duma elections, a return to four-year presidential terms, a professional army by 2015, a visa-free regime for OSCE citizens, the privatization of state-owned companies and a 30 percent cut in the number of state employees by 2014. Prokhorov also promises to free all economic "criminals" from prison, a nod to billionaire and former Yukos CEO Mikhail...

..., with accusations it answers to foreign benefactors. Golos was among the most vocal critics of the election results, which preserved a narrow majority for Putin's United Russia party. The conduct of the elections was also heavily criticized by the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and other Western watchdogs. In a December report, the ODIHR said the voting was "characterized by frequent procedural violations and instances of apparent manipulation." When asked...