Ukraine Welcomes a Thousand International Observers for Parliamentary Elections

KYIV, Ukraine, October 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

As of today, the Central Election Commission of Ukraine registered 972 international observers for the October 28, 2012, parliamentary elections. Observers from 11 countries (including U.S., Canada, Japan, and the EU) along with the representatives of 20 international organizations will monitor the course of the elections in Ukraine. More than 2.5 thousand international observers are still expected to arrive.

Observers from Spain, Azerbaijan, Lithuania and non-governmental organization CANADEM became the latest additions to the CEC international observers list as of October 8, 2012. The largest team of observers so far is registered on behalf of CIS-EMO - 129 representatives. Another large team of observers will be sent by the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (108). OSCE had also sent its monitoring missions to October 1^st parliamentary elections in Georgia and to the upcoming October 14^th and 28^th parliamentary elections in Lithuania.

ENEMO registered 40 observers in Ukraine. Reportedly, the organization planned to extend its existing observers team in Ukraine by 400 additional short-term observers The U.S., Hungary, Poland and Canada will send 40, 33, 28 and 10 observers respectively to monitor elections in Ukraine

Long-term observers monitor compliance of all preparatory procedures prior to the elections - formation of voter lists, publishing ballots, setting up the polling stations operation, etc. Short-term observers are present at the polling stations only on the day of the elections. They report on whether the voting process had met legal and procedural requirements - namely: had the voters had an opportunity to cast their votes freely and secretly, had the ballots been counted following the procedural requirements, and had democratic standards been met.

Registration of foreign observers in Ukraine is open until seven days prior to the day of the elections. The observing mission of the European Parliament will arrive to Ukraine on October 24^th, reports Interfax.

Half of the Ukrainian parliament - 225 MPs - will be elected through party lists, while the other half will elected in single-member constituencies.

The latest GfK NOP poll indetified Party of Regions as a leader of the pre-election campaign with 25 percent, followed by Vitali Klitschko's Udar with 17 percent. The United Opposition received 15 percent, the Communist Party - 9 percent. Other parties are below the election threshold of five percent.