IRI Staff Observe Parliamentary Elections

March 26, 2004

At the request of the U.S. Embassy of Ukraine, IRI assisted embassy staff with the observation of the special parliamentary bi-election on March 7 in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. The election observation team found that there was a lack of access to media for opposition candidates and that election commissions were stacked with members loyal to the administration’s chosen candidate – the brother of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine. Election violations observed by the team included persons voting twice, observers being denied their rights to view the counting process and more than one person found in the polling booth at the same time.

IRI staff discovered that many of the election commissioners as well as the so called “observers” were unaware of which candidate they represented (Ukrainian law allows candidates to have representatives at each polling station). It became apparent that these persons were selected by the local administration to give the appearance of a democratic election while maintaining control over the process.

As a result of IRI’s work, the U.S. Embassy requested IRI’s assistance with election observation training for a group of 24 diplomatic missions prior to the October 2004 Ukrainian Presidential Election.

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