You're reading: OSCE/ODIHR to issue final report on Rada elections in 2 months

Director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE/ODIHR) Janez Lenarcic expects that the office will issue a final report on the parliamentary elections in Ukraine two months after the completion of the electoral process.

“In about two months after the completion of the electoral process
the OSCE/ODIHR will issue a full and final report, which will include
recommendations, in particular the priority ones,” Lenarcic said in an
interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

He noted that all the OSCE member-countries had undertaken an
obligation to promptly respond to the ODIHR’s recommendations on
elections, and expressed the hope that Ukraine would also be ready for
this.

“The OSCE is ready to assist Ukraine in this process,” he said.

Lenarcic also said that the statement on the preliminary findings
concerning the parliamentary elections in Ukraine, which was made public
on October 29 by OSCE/ODIHR, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Parliament
and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, was based on a collective
assessment by more than 800 international observers.

As for the OSCE/ODIHR mission, its observers have worked in Ukraine
since September 12, Lenarcic said. The mission was made up of 20 experts
from the core monitoring group, 90 long-term and 500 short-term
observers.

“The head of the observation mission of the OSCE/ODIHR, Audrey
Glover, is the only person authorized to act on behalf of the mission.
All other potential statements or opinions are personal opinions or
views of those who voice them, and do not represent the views of the
Office,” Lenarcic said.

After the parliamentary elections in Ukraine, head of the OSCE
long-term observer mission Audrey Glover said that there was backsliding
in the democratic process in Ukraine and by head of the OSCE
Parliamentary Assembly delegation Walburga Habsburg Douglas said that in
order to hear the position of one of the key politicians in the
country, one should not have to go to see them in prison.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry responded with a statement that the
criticism by Douglas and Glover was their personal opinion and not the
conclusion of all the members of the delegation.

“Taking into account the statements of other observers, it becomes
clear that the statements by Douglas and Glover are their personal
thoughts – groundless and emotional, and not the result of observations
of all members of the delegation,” the Foreign Ministry’s press service
said.