Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights - Elections

Following an invitation from the Government of Ukraine, the OSCE/ODIHR deployed an Election Observation Mission to observe the parliamentary elections on 26 March 2006.

On 26 March, voters went to the polls to elect the 450 members of the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) through a proportional representation system of national lists of parties and blocs of parties. This is a new election system; the outgoing Parliament was elected through a mixed majoritarian/proportional system. The campaign started at the end of November 2005.

Local elections took place on the same day as the parliamentary elections. While the OSCE/ODIHR did not observe the local elections, it may comment on issues related to local elections to the extent that they impact on the parliamentary elections process.

The ODIHR Election Observation Mission and the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine, headed by Ambassador James F. Schumaker, operate separately under their specific mandates.

Long-term observation

The Mission, headed by Ambassador Lubomir Kopaj of Slovakia, consisted of 12 international staff based in Kyiv and 52 long-term observers deployed in the regions. Experts and long-term observers were drawn from 23 different OSCE participating States.

The Mission assessed the entire electoral process in terms of its compliance with OSCE commitments for democratic elections, other international standards, and national legislation. It focused on the election campaign, the legislative framework and its implementation, the media situation, the work of the election administration and relevant government bodies, and the resolution of election-related disputes.

Election day

The ODIHR requested 600 short-term observers to be deployed immediately prior to the 26 March election. These observers were joined by delegations from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament. The short-term observers were deployed around the country in multi-national teams of two to monitor the opening of polling stations, the voting, the counting of ballots, and the tabulation of results.

The day after the election, the Election Observation Mission issued a statement of preliminary findings and conclusions.

A final report on the observation of the entire election process will be issued approximately eight weeks after the end of the Election Observation Mission.

Previous elections

The ODIHR has observed a number of elections in Ukraine, including the 1999 presidential election, the 2002 parliamentary elections and the 2004 presidential election.