CVU: No international observers registered with the CEC
The Head of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine [CVU], Oleksandr Chernenko stated on Saturday that as of 8 October the Central Election Commission had not registered any international observers for the October 31 Local Elections. There should have been observers both during the election campaign, and on Election Day itself.
Mr Chernenko said that the OSCE / ODIHR Mission would not have time to prepare a full mission since it was only invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a month and a half ago.
“Two OSCE experts will be coming and will be somewhere in Kyiv. That is, most likely they will serve as observers. They’ll meet with the CEC and with politicians. So there won’t be a fully-fledged OSCE mission and there won’t, therefore, be a report. There will definitely be such an assessment mission from the OSCE”.
He believes that overall in Ukraine there will be no more than 50 international observers who will go, as a rule to Odessa, Donetsk, maybe somewhere else. “So there’s no point in counting on international observers at these elections”
“These elections will in many ways be a litmus test for Ukraine’s democracy. In fact local elections like those now in Ukraine have never been of interest to foreign states. For them parliamentary and presidential elections are always more interests, and few pay attention to local elections. At present we’re seeing great interest.”
He adds that there will be reaction both from particular countries and international organizations over the results and assessment of the local elections.