Pretty please

After government officials initially resisted allowing international observers to monitor Poland's October 21 elections, it now seems the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) may be invited to participate, provided it asks nicely.

Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga earlier this month refused entry to the OSCE saying the note it sent to Poland was inappropriate. But under pressure from the opposition and rights groups Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński last week said the government would consider inviting the OSCE to monitor the election if it "changes the tone" of its request.

"They are the only ones qualified to say what they found upsetting in the note. It was a standard diplomatically phrased note simply asking to meet to discuss the needs of the election. When working at very short notice - we have just 45 days notice - we don't have time to sit and wait for the invite, we have to get things moving," said Urdur Gunnarsdottir, a spokesperson for the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), which is the section of the OSCE handling election monitoring.

Gunnarsdottir added that it is standard practice for ODIHR to contact a country that has elections approaching, emphasizing that Poland was not a unique case.

As a member of the OSCE, Poland is politically obliged to invite the OSCE in to monitor its elections. Some 57 percent of Poles believe that the OSCE should be invited to monitor the elections, according to a survey by pollster GfK Polonia for daily Rzeczpospolita last week.