Virus hits US election monitoring

VIENNA: The OSCE, which monitors elections in many parts of the world, will only send a small team to observe the US polls in November due to the pandemic, it said on Saturday.

The credibility of the American voting system faces its most serious threat in decades, fuelled by presidential rhetoric, fears over record mail-in voting, worry about ageing machines.

“The safety concerns as well as continuing travel restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic are creating challenges for all our election-related activities and particularly for the deployment of long- and short-term observers.”