You're reading: 1,000 OSCE observers to oversee presidential elections in Ukraine

 The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) will send one of the biggest election observation missions in the ODIHR's history to the early presidential elections in Ukraine on May 25, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Swiss President Didier Burkhalter said on May 12.

“Free and fair elections in accordance with internationally agreed
standards are essential to stabilize the situation in the country,”
Burkhalter said during the meeting of the EU foreign affairs ministers
in Brussels.

According to him, this is a part of the OSCE roadmap for the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis.

One hundred long-term observers are already deployed throughout the regions, he OSCE chief reported.

“An additional 900 short-term observers will be deployed shortly before the elections,” he added.

On election day, the ODIHR will join efforts with a delegation of the
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and other parliamentary partners.

Burkhalter said that the OSCE Roadmap suggests that the first or
second election date might be used to also have a nationwide (perhaps
consultative) plebiscite on major issues of the national dialogue.

“It could be an opportunity to reflect on first key findings and
recommendations from the roundtables and set some important benchmarks
for the constitutional process going forward,” he said.