You're reading: Canadian election observers start their mission in Ukraine

Official observers from Canada who arrived to monitor the elections to the Verkhovna Rada have started work in Ukraine, Canada's Ambassador to Ukraine Troy Lulashnyk has said.

“We have officially started the observation mission that will monitor
the 2012 parliamentary elections. This shows that we have accepted the
invitation of the Government of Ukraine to the Government of Canada to
send observers to the parliamentary elections this fall,” he said at a
press conference in Kyiv on Thursday, Sept. 6.

He also noted that Canada has been sending its observers to Ukraine for a long time.

“The October election is very important for democracy, well-being and prosperity of this country,” the ambassador stressed.

The head of the Canadian mission’s administration, Taras Zalusky, said that the mission is funded by the government of Canada.

“We hope that the results will correctly show the will of the Ukrainian people,” he said.

He said that 65 long-term observers will carry out their duties
before the arrival of 300 short-term observers. In addition, he noted
that Canada sent 70 people to monitor the elections in Ukraine as part
of the OSCE mission.

According to Zalusky, Canadian observers will publish interim reports
for two months, and then present the final report on the results of the
monitoring of the parliamentary elections in Ukraine.

In addition, the coordinator of the mission, Anna Shyptur, noted that
as of Wednesday, more than a thousand members of election commissions
had been replaced. In this regard, the observers have expressed the
concern on whether the new commission members have been trained properly
and will be able to form a quorum, and whether they will be able to
continue preparation for the elections.

According to Shyptur, the Canadian observers will be watching the
situation to see how these changes will affect the work of the
commissions