OSCE/ODIHR opens mission on monitoring local elections in Ukraine

Currently, the mission consists of 16 experts, which will work in Kyiv, 100 long-term observers are expected to arrive soon, who are determined to execute the mandate at places, chief of the long-term observer mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) Tana de Zulueta said at the briefing on Wednesday. "The mission will evaluate the election process from the point of its correspondence to the OSCE liabilities, other liabilities and the standards of democratic elections, including the national legislation… We aren't interested in the results of the elections, we are interested in the process," Zulueta underlined. The observers are determined to study the process of the registration of the candidates for deputies of all levels, the course of pre-election campaign, the work by the agencies responsible for the management of the election process, the correspondence of internal electoral legislation, including the monitoring of the media, Zulueta added. "On the day of the elections, October 25, 600 short-term observers will monitor the course of the elections and we have already made the corresponding requests to all members states of the organization. Our reporting process will be conducted according to the standard procedure: we present the interim report one day before the elections and the preliminary results – at the press conference on October 26. In around 8 weeks we will present the full report, which will also have the recommendations," Zulueta underlined. "We will draw on the decisions made by the Ukrainian government," Zulueta said answering the journalist's question about the peculiarities of the work by the ODIHR observers in the anti-terrorist operation zone in eastern Ukraine. "As soon as the populated areas, where the local elections to be held, are identified, we will regulate the number of observers, who are to be sent there… In addition, we will monitor the fulfilment of minimal requirements required for our work, especially those relating to the security issues. Also, it is important for us that our observers have unrestricted mobility," Zulueta said. In particular, the observers will monitor that the internally displaced persons have appropriate conditions to vote, Zulueta added. One of the principles at the OSCE is to conduct activities only by invitation of the member states of the OSCE, Zulueta said answering the question on the possible negotiations with the so-called Luhansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic on conducting the mission on the territories, which aren't controlled by Ukraine. "We accept any invitation from any formation, which isn't the member state of the OSCE and can guarantee any of the conditions I mentioned above," Zulueta.