OSCE's election office issues final report on Ukrainian parliamentary elections
(Jens Eschenbaecher/OSCE)A voter studies the ballot paper before voting during the
Ukrainian
parliamentary elections, Kyiv, 31 March 2002. (Jens Eschenbaecher/OSCE) Photo details
WARSAW, 28 May 2002 - The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) today released its final report on the 31 March parliamentary elections in Ukraine.
"The 31 March [] elections indicated progress over the 1998 parliamentary polls. Despite shortcomings, these elections brought Ukraine closer to meeting international commitments and standards for democratic elections", concludes the report.
While Ukraine met in full or in part a number of commitments such as universality, transparency, freedom and accountability, it failed to guarantee a level playing field, an indispensable condition to ensure the fairness of the process. As regards election day procedures, technical improvements are needed to protect the secrecy of the ballot and to offer an orderly and dignified process to the voters.
The ODIHR observed the whole electoral process before, during, and after election day. An Election Observation Mission with 38 experts and long-term observers deployed in Kyiv and 11 regional centres was established on 26 February. For election day, the ODIHR organized the deployment of 390 short-term observers from 45 OSCE countries who monitored voting and counting in 1,624 polling stations across Ukraine.
"The 31 March [] elections indicated progress over the 1998 parliamentary polls. Despite shortcomings, these elections brought Ukraine closer to meeting international commitments and standards for democratic elections", concludes the report.
While Ukraine met in full or in part a number of commitments such as universality, transparency, freedom and accountability, it failed to guarantee a level playing field, an indispensable condition to ensure the fairness of the process. As regards election day procedures, technical improvements are needed to protect the secrecy of the ballot and to offer an orderly and dignified process to the voters.
The ODIHR observed the whole electoral process before, during, and after election day. An Election Observation Mission with 38 experts and long-term observers deployed in Kyiv and 11 regional centres was established on 26 February. For election day, the ODIHR organized the deployment of 390 short-term observers from 45 OSCE countries who monitored voting and counting in 1,624 polling stations across Ukraine.