[cperciva]

I don't know about the system in that particular county, but the system in most democracies is that any candidate has the right to appoint a representative to be present. In practice this means that the parties run down their lists of volunteers; depending on how many volunteers they have in a particular area it might be very easy for someone to get appointed as such. (In the last Canadian election, I turned up on election day to volunteer for a friend who was a candidate for a major party, and six hours later I was an Official Candidate Representative scrutinizing the vote counting.)

[wfunction]

Good to know -- thanks for the anecdote!