Press release issued by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly

VIENNA, 18 December 2009 - The following is a press release issued by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly today. The views expressed in this press release do not necessarily reflect those of the OSCE Chairmanship, nor of all OSCE participating States.

President Soares appoints regional leaders for Ukraine election

COPENHAGEN, 18 DECEMBER 2009 - OSCE PA President Joao Soares has appointed six experienced election observers as heads of the regional parliamentary observation teams for the presidential election in Ukraine on 17 January 2010.

President Soares, who will lead the Assembly's observation mission, has also been appointed Special Co-ordinator by the OSCE Chair-in-Office. In this role, Mr. Soares will lead all OSCE short-term observers and deliver the preliminary post-election statement at a press conference in Kyiv on the day after the election.

The parliamentarians appointed to head the six regional observation teams are: Alcee Hastings (USA) in Kyiv, Wolfgang Grossruck (Austria) in Lviv, Tone Tingsgaard (Sweden) in Donetsk, Riccardo Migliori (Italy) in Sevastopol, Kanan Kalsin (Turkey) in Kharkiv, and François-Xavier De Donnea (Belgium) in Odessa.

A total of 136 parliamentarians and staff from 31 OSCE countries have registered to participate in the Assembly's election observation mission to Ukraine.

The Assembly started to prepare for the election in October, with substantive research being conducted by its International Secretariat in Copenhagen. The Secretariat's research team has been preparing a comprehensive briefing report and an ongoing media review, both of which will be distributed to observers prior to deployment.

President Soares conducted a pre-election visit to Ukraine in early November, during which he met with the Central Election Commission Chairman and the presidential candidates.

Since 1993, the OSCE PA has deployed over 3,000 parliamentarians to observe elections across the OSCE area. The PA observed Ukraine's presidential election in 2004 and its parliamentary elections in 2007.