Bohdan Futey: Ukrainian World Congress mission will contribute to more transparent elections

Kyiv, May 21, 2014 – Bohdan Futey, head of the World Mission of Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) on observation of presidential elections and elections to self-governing authorities in Ukraine, a federal judge for the United States Court of Federal Claims, during the media briefing in Ukraine Crisis Media Center, while giving comments on work of the Mission, stated that the Central Election Committee registered 236 international observers from the UWC. They are to monitor the elections of the President of Ukraine as well as elections of city mayors on May 25, 2014 in 21 regions of Ukraine.
«One of the UWC’s tasks is to monitor democratic processes, including elections and referendums. We are going to observe adherence to democratic principles during the elections of the President of Ukraine and city mayors on May 25, 2014. International observers will monitor any possible violation of the election process, such as campaigning at voting stations or outside, vote buying, falsification of results, hindering activity of observers or poll workers etc».

During the elections the UWC mission will cooperate with the Mission of Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, consisting of 224 observers. As Mr. Futey noted, «these two missions together make up about 25% of all international observers coming to Ukraine to monitor elections». The UWC Mission will also cooperate with observers from the civil network «Opora» as well as the Committee of Voters of Ukraine.

This Mission is unique because all the UWC observers are volunteers and provide for their stay in Ukraine on their own. In Mr. Futey’s opinion, this fact is a display of «the Mission’s level and our observers’ commitment to Ukraine, for they want to see Ukraine an independent, democratic, sovereign and territorially integral state».

On the day of the elections the Mission plans to make three press releases on the course of the elections, and the next day, May 26, a press-conference will be held summing up the monitoring results.

UWC is an international coordination superstructure of Ukrainian communities in expatriate representing interests of more than 20 million of Ukrainians. UWC comprises Ukrainian organizations from 33 countries and maintains ties with Ukrainians from another 14 countries. Being founded in 1967, in 2003 UWC was accepted as a non-government organization with special consultative status by the Economic and social council of the United Nations Organization.

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