Christopher Newbury

[1] In 1976, he represented the Oxford Union in the Observer Mace debating competition with Benazir Bhutto.

[2] Newbury was appointed to the UK Delegation to the Congress of the Council of Europe in 1998 to represent English and Welsh Independents.

From 1999 he specialised in monitoring local democracy and observing elections,[3] preparing Congress reports on local democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina (2001 and 2006),[4][5] Armenia (2003),[6] Luxembourg (2004),[7][8] Liechtenstein (2005),[9][10] Serbia (2010)[11] and Russia (2010).

[12] His report on local and regional democracy in Russia (2010) recommended the reintroduction of direct elections for regional governors, making it possible to register new political parties "without the need to demonstrate an impractically large number of members", ending the use of closed lists in elections, and measures to deal with corruption.

[14] He also headed election observations in Kosovo (2001),[15] Ukraine (2002),[16] Armenia (2002),[17] Gagauzia, Moldova (2003),[18] and Palestine (2005).