IRI Eurasia Director Attends Swearing-in of President Yushchenko

January 28, 2005

IRI Eurasia Director Stephen Nix and IRI Special Advisor on Ukraine Judge Bohdan Futey attended the inaugural ceremony for Ukraine’s new president Victor Yushchenko on Sunday, Jan. 23, in Kyiv. The event was the culmination of a lengthy electoral process which started on Oct. 31, 2004, with the first-round vote, and included two additional run-off votes, the second of which was called for by the Supreme Court. The Court had ruled that the first run-off election was fraudulent and did not accurately reflect the will of the Ukrainian people. For weeks, Ukrainians had peacefully demonstrated in the streets of Kyiv, demanding that their votes be properly counted—a movement that was named “The Orange Revolution.”

IRI observers monitored the voting in all three elections. In IRI’s preliminary statement on the second and final run-off, IRI acknowledged: " the significance of the role of the courts in ensuring a more fair election process during the third round of voting, the positive role that parliament played during the electoral process, and the historic role that civil society played in demanding the right to have their votes properly counted. The courts, the parliament and the people should be saluted for their democratic actions during this election season in Ukraine."

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