You're reading: OSCE to send same number of observers to monitor Ukraine’s runoff

The number of OSCE monitors who will observe the February 7 presidential runoff in Ukraine will be the same as during the first round of the election.

President of the OSCE’s Parliamentary Assembly Joao Soares announced this at a briefing following his meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Petro Poroshenko.

A total of 60 long-term observers from the OSCE as well as 500 short-term monitors from OSCE member-states and 100 observers who are members of the parliaments of OSCE member-states are workingon Ukraine’s presidential election, Soares said.

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly president thanked the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry for its assistance in organizing the work of the election observers, as well as for their promise to help ensure the unhampered registration of monitors for the runoff election.

Soares said that as a citizen of Portugal, he could testify that voting in the Ukrainian election in foreign polling stations in Portugal went smoothly.

"And we, as members of the EU, want to see Ukraine in this union, because it’s not only Ukraine that needs the EU, but the European Union that needs Ukraine," he added.