International Observers Activate Their Missions in Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine, August 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

The European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO) has launched their observation campaign in Ukraine. 18 teams of the network representatives have already started working all around the country, according to the head of the mission Peter Navotny. Overall, ENEMO plans to provide 400 short-term observers to monitor Ukrainian parliamentary elections of October 28, 2012.

The network will monitor the election process and political situation in the country as well as the mood of the public. During the election campaign ENEMO plans to deliver three reports: the first one is due on September 11, the second - in October, and immediately after the election day observers will present a preliminary report on the election campaign in Ukraine.

ENEMO plans to cooperate with other Ukrainian and international observer missions, particularly OSCE, who share their principles. Consisting of 22 civic organizations from 17 countries of the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe, ENEMO has observed more than 110 national elections and trained more than 100 thousand election monitors. Notably, in 2010 ENEMO provided an equal number of observes - 400 - for Ukraine's presidential elections, which were largely perceived as fair and transparent.

Beside ENEMO, hundreds of other international observers, including official representatives of Canada, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, United States and a number of international organizations have already announced their plans to monitor the parliamentary elections in Ukraine. So far, a total of 207 official international observers received permission of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine (CEC) to monitor the October 28, 2012, elections. The remainder of foreign observers should submit their registration documents no later than seven days prior to the Election Day.

The teams of international observers will consist of long- and short-term observers. The long-term observers will cover the whole territory of Ukraine, monitoring the compliance of pre-election procedures with democratic and fair elections principles. The main group of observers will work in Ukraine during the voting day, providing coverage of the representative sample of polling stations. For instance, the OSCE will send 100 long-term and 600 short-term observers to the Ukrainian elections, according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Kostyantyn Hryshchenko.