Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights - Elections

Following an invitation from the Ukrainian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the OSCE/ODIHR deployed an Election Observation Mission to observe the pre-term parliamentary elections on 30 September 2007.

Ukrainian 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. The campaign started at the beginning of August 2007.

The ODIHR Election Observation Mission and the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine operate separately under their specific mandates.

Long-term observation

The Mission, headed by Ambassador Audrey Glover of the United Kingdom, consists of 17 international staff based in Kyiv. The OSCE/ODIHR requested the OSCE participating States to second 60 long-term observers to be deployed in the regions.

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 30 September elections. These observers were joined by delegations from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. 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, the 2004 presidential election and the 2006 parliamentary elections.