Over 3,000 international observers are registered in Ukraine's presidential election 2010. The OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission is represented by a large number of observers. The OSCE/ODIHR plays a coordinating role for monitors from other European institutions.
Thus, around 60 representatives of this European organization, who arrived in Ukraine in November, are monitoring the voting preparations and the electoral framework. Additionally, over 400 short-term observers with the OSCE/ODIHR will be present directly at polling stations across Ukraine.
ODIHR spokesman, Mr Jens Hagen Eschenbaecher, has disclosed the plans of OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission to Ukraine for Presidential Election 2010 for the second round in an interview with UKRINFORM correspondent.
In a runoff election the number of ODIHR monitors will remain almost unchanged. “We have on the second round a total of over 500 observers. 45 out of 56 OSCE participating countries have deployed their observers for Ukraine's election. This includes 60 long-term observers and 20 election experts here in the office in Kyiv. In addition, we have over 400 short-term observers, who have arrived in Kyiv this week,” the ODIHR spokesman said.
He assured that despite a desire of the Ukrainian authorities voiced before, there had been no plans to increase the mission. The number of observers, according to the Organization, is sufficient to cover the entire country. The high number of observers is due to the size of the country and a huge interest in the election process in Ukraine.
ODIHR observes elections across the OSCE region. “In Georgia, for example, we had also a full-scale observation mission, as we have here. The number of observers was smaller than here, as Georgia is a smaller country,” Eschenbaecher said. However, ODIHR did not observe the last parliamentary and the presidential in Russia due to restrictions imposed by the Russian authorities.
The ODIHR is not expecting the general framework in Ukraine between the two rounds to change, he added. Though, the amendments to the law on the presidential election ahead of the second round the Ukrainian parliament made on February 3 have triggered ODIHR's concerns.
“In general, it is not international good practice to make last-minute changes to the election law, in particular between the two rounds of an election,” Eschenbecher emphasized. At the same time, he said that 'in reality the amendments do not change much if election officials show up on election day and do their work in a professional way and in good faith as they generally did in the first round'.
The OSCE/ODIHR has been observing elections in Ukraine since 1998. In particular, in the 2004 presidential election the ODIHR deployed its ever largest observation mission to Ukraine involving over 1,300 monitors.
OSCE/ODIHR reports regarding the 2006 parliamentary election and the 2007 pre-term parliamentary election concluded that they generally met our country's commitments undertaken in frames of the OSCE, the Council of Europe and other international organizations.
The OSCE Election Observation Mission to Ukraine for Presidential Election 2010 led by Heidi Tagliavini set to work in Ukraine on November 24, 2009.
According to a procedure, the OSCE observation mission is supposed to release their preliminary conclusions the next day after a runoff election. ODIHR's final report on Ukraine's presidential election 2010 will be provided approximately in eight weeks.
Source:emportal.rs/
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