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The observation knot

CIS mission of two minds about observing elections
31 January, 00:00

Parliamentary election observers are beginning to arrive in Ukraine. The first to report their arrival was the mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). However, not all observation organizations can come to our country. For example, the executive committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is still of two minds about whether to come. On the one hand, the Verkhovna Rada has invited observers from the CIS, but Ukrainian diplomats have hinted that their visit is undesirable.

Monitoring elections has acquired extraordinary importance in the last while. In fact, the rise to power of the opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko in 2004 became possible not in the least owing to the negative reactions of the OSCE and the Council of Europe to the election process in Ukraine. The coming elections are no exception. Kyiv’s continuing progress in the international arena very much depends on how democratic these elections will be (and to a large extent on their results). For instance, representatives of NATO member states have repeatedly pointed out that Ukraine might join the Membership Action Plan only after the current election campaign. In addition to OSCE delegates, Ukraine expects about 40 observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, who are supposed to arrive in late February.

CIS representatives will likely come to Ukraine. In the first place, Central Election Commission chairman Yaroslav Davydovych has already announced their participation in the monitoring. Second, they were invited by the Verkhovna Rada, and third, President Yushchenko is not against their presence, either. He has said that Ukraine is ready to welcome “people of good will” from any corner of the world, including the CIS. What is more, the CIS leadership would hardly miss an opportunity to make its “fruitful” existence known. In the long run, there are states in the post-Soviet space that may be interested in alternative assessments of the Ukrainian electoral process. It should be recalled that the reports of the CIS and OSCE missions on the last presidential elections differed radically. This creates the not unfounded impression that CIS observers work in a “hands-on mode.”

Obviously, the Ukrainian diplomats’ position is tied to the work methods of the CIS delegates. Deputy Foreign Minister Anton Buteiko said recently that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs cannot invite observers from the CIS because it does not have the status of a subject of international law. The diplomat noted that in 1991 the Verkhovna Rada issued a declaration that Ukraine should treat the CIS as a structure without this status. “It would be wrong and contrary to Verkhovna Rada requirements to invite observers from something that does not have this kind of status,” said Buteiko. At the same time, he announced that Kyiv is ready to welcome observers from individual CIS member states.

It appears that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to backtrack on its previous statements and grudgingly adopt this position. Recognizing the CIS mission’s right to be present would have been evidence of the Ukrainian diplomats’ inconsistency. It will be recalled that over the past year Ukraine has not participated in CIS observation missions during elections in countries of the post-Soviet space. This position was broadcast many times at CIS Executive Committee meetings. Now the ball is in the CIS’s court. The impression remains that Ukrainians will not feel hurt if observers from this post-Soviet association choose not to come.

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