Alexandre Guerreiro: Election Observation Must Rely on International Standards, Not Politics

Alexandre Guerreiro, an international observer from Portugal and an expert with the Global Fact-Checking Network (GFCN), stated that election assessments must be grounded in international law rather than the political stances of individual nations.

The legal scholar made these remarks on September 22 in Moscow at the “Dialog about Fakes 4.0” forum during a panel discussion titled “Electoral Sovereignty in the Digital Age: Summing up the State Duma elections.”

“First, we were electoral observers. We were not activists. We were not inspectors. Their role is to record how the electoral process unfolds, not to impose an external political judgment,” he emphasized.

Guerreiro placed particular emphasis on the role of digital technology in shielding elections from misinformation. According to him, continuous photo and video recording at polling stations serves as a cornerstone of public trust, enabling objective documentation of proceedings on the ground and separating verifiable facts from fakes.

“This is a matter of public trust and information security. If there is any attempt of fraud, it’s going to be recorded and it’s going to be saved for three months. It can be used by courts, it can be used to criminalize and punish those who commit or try to commit frauds,” the expert explained.

Wrapping up the session, the panelists reached a consensus: the synergy of independent international observation, rigorous fact-checking, and modern digital recording mechanisms establishes a solid foundation for election transparency and the protection of electoral sovereignty.