Audrey Glover is back as the head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s election mission in Ukraine. While she is not a permanent expatriate, the United Kingdom citizen has taken up residence in the nation at two pivotal times in the last five years.
In 2007, the mission Glover led from OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights said that Ukraine had “met most of its international commitments” for democracy. The OSCE gave the same democratic grade to Ukraine in the 2005 and 2010 presidential election, as well as the 2006 parliamentary election.
This four-election winning streak over the last seven years is on the line as Ukrainians elect a new parliament on Oct. 28. Glover hopes the election observation mission will find that the fall vote meets democratic standards. “I’d say amen to that if it happens,” Glover said.
But, while Glover is very cautious in her words, many in the West do not think it is possible for this election to meet most democratic standards given the fact that two leading opposition leaders – ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and ex-Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko – are imprisoned and unable to participate.
The OSCE is also aware of the problems with the nation’s October 2010 local elections, the first held under President Viktor Yanukovych. And nobody’s going to forget the rigged 2004 presidential election that initially had Yanukovych as the winner before the popular uprising known as the Orange Revolution changed history and the course of the nation.
Glover describes today’s environment as full of uncertainty. “There’s this feeling that people don’t quite know what’s going to happen,” noted Glover.
OSCE’s initial Oct. 4 report – a second preliminary report is due on Oct. 19 – found some troubles in the pre-election landscape.
The report concluded that the composition of district and precinct election commissions isn’t representative of the political parties, and that the lotteries for choosing the parties eligible to nominate certain members “lacked transparency.”
The first interim report also cited alarming cases of violence against candidates, a broadcast media environment significantly lacking in pluralism, widespread instances of gift and food-giving to voters, various forms of incumbency abuse and the Central Election Commission’s closed-door decision-making.
“Allegations of illegal interference or abuse of administrative resources in the campaign by local and regional authorities include the refusal to allocate requested venues to parties or candidates, pressure on companies not to rent billboard space, and pressure and teachers and health care workers,” reads the interim report.
Glover specifically cited the diminishing viewer reach of independent TVi channel and lamented that Ukraine has no public television. She also said many questions exist about how campaigns are financed.
Soon the ODIHR core team will be joined by more than 600 short-term observers, 200 more than in 2007.
For Glover, a former human rights lawyer and former head of the United Kingdom delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, getting the facts straight is paramount as an observer.
“We want to follow up with … hard evidence, we don’t like working on just allegations. We want to substantiate everything that we actually hear so that we have solid proof. That’s he how we work,” emphasized Glover.
This mission’s assessment is bound to get widespread attention, since many Western leaders have concluded that the conduct of the Oct. 28 parliamentary elections will affect relations with Ukraine’s leaders.
The OSCE findings are still considered to be the gold standard in election observation missions, although missions in the past have been accused of going soft on authoritarian leaders such as Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev and others. Glover said OSCE missions rely on sophisticated, constantly revised methodology to keep up with technological changes and new dirty electoral tricks.
Glover also stressed a strict adherence to impartiality, which means the missions are staffed by people from many of the 56 nations that make up the OSCE. Who wins and who loses is not a concern of the election mission. How each side wins or loses is what matters.
Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].
