They said their poll watchers were well trained to ask legitimate questions and had done nothing illegal.

Often, however, the poll watchers' role is more subtle.

Their role is not restricted to nomination of poll watchers.

Her group is the largest and most active among the 2,000 foreign poll watchers.

We ran over and found an election official arguing with the poll watchers from the various political parties.

The poll watchers thought they were influencing the voters' choices.

What can a poll watcher do to avoid being misled?

"Our poll watchers and election inspectors will challenge people to show some kind of identification as to who they are," he said.

He said poll watchers did not put an emphasis on members of minorities.

Much of the credit for this moral victory goes to the civil society groups that trained 24,000 local poll watchers.