Ukraine’s Central Elections Commission improves transparency of its work with OSCE support

For the first time, the Central Election Commission of Ukraine streamed live on the web a meeting of its members on Tuesday, 5 November 2019. This was made possible by the conference system that was provided and installed by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine earlier this year. The streaming was a pilot project with the Commission intending to make its meetings available online on a regular basis.

The system was introduced to streamline the workflow of the Commission. The equipment was installed in two rooms — the press center and the official meeting hall. The Commission’s employees were trained to set it up and use it. The law envisages that all the meetings of the Commission are to be open to public so that civil society representatives, election observers and the broader public are able to watch them online.

“Transparency of the election administration is key to enhancing public confidence in ballot as a tool to influence the government of the country. This, in turn, is very important for cementing social cohesion and improving security of the country,” said Henrik Villadsen, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine.

The effort is part of the project, implemented by the Co-ordinator to help the Commission enhance cybersecurity of its systems and transparency of its operation. The US Mission to the OSCE, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway and the Slovak Republic Mission to the OSCE funded the project.