The ODIHR assesses how free and fair elections are across Europe, Asia and North America.

In the last week of March, the ODIHR conducted a preelection assessment mission to Ireland. It met with each of the political parties, the Irish Council of Civil Liberties (ICCL), left-wing think- tank Tasc, Traveller organisations and government departments of Foreign Affairs and Environment and Local Government.

The ODIHR found satisfaction and confidence in election administration and in the integrity of voting and counting systems in Ireland.

The ODIHR election mission will also examine matters highlighted during their preelection visit such as voter registration and the decision not to use electronic voting in the 2007 elections.

Some political parties who met with ODIHR highlighted their concerns about how limits on election spending were circumvented by spending in the period prior to the official announcement of the election. Advertising campaigns run by the largest and wealthiest political parties were cited as evidence of this.

On voter registration, all parties who met with ODIHR acknowledged efforts to make the vote registers as accurate as possible. Some political parties, Tasc and ICCL cited anxiety about the register 'clean-up' resulting in the removal of eligible voters. The Department of Environment told ODIHR that more than one million modifications were made to voter registers during its latest review. The practice of needing an application for late registration to be witnessed by a garda was cited by ICCL, Tasc and Traveller organisations as a possible deterrent to registration. Tasc also emphasised how low literacy can deter people from registering and voting. Several political parties and Tasc expressed their concern to ODIHR that current constituency boundaries did not reflect the actual size of the population, resulting in some communities being under represented and others over represented. Most of the groups who met with ODIHR felt that three-seater constituencies favoured larger parties, while larger constituencies favour smaller parties. Smaller parties pointed out the move towards three-seater constituencies.