OSCE election mission resolution OK'd (3)

(ANSA) - Rome, December 13 - The Lower House Constitutional affairs committee on Wednesday approved a resolution urging the government to take all steps to welcome a mission by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to monitor the next general election. The monitoring, anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) MP and OSCE delegate Emanuele Scagliusi said, will consist of four levels and will include the presence of observers at voting stations, if the OSCE deems that necessary.
    M5S leader Luigi Di Maio said recently that he has reason to believe that OSCE will monitor the general election Italy is due to hold early next year.
    The M5S met OSCE delegates in Rome Sunday.
    "Everything makes me think that it is intent on monitoring our elections, as it did in 2006", he said.
    The blog of M5S founder Beppe Grillo recently published a letter Di Maio sent to the OSCE asking it to monitor voting operations and the election campaign with a "focus on the media situation and the time they devote to the various political parties".
    The M5S made an unsuccessful bid to have the OSCE monitor the recent regional election in Sicily, in which it came second behind a centre-right coalition, arguing there was a danger of vote buying.