Expatriates already living in Ukraine and willing to work as observers in Ukraine’s March parliamentary elections are being sought by a Western-backed NGO for its monitoring team.
The U.S.-based International Republican Institute (IRI), an affiliate of the American Republican Party, is eager to recruit more ex-pats as election monitors than it has in the past.
“I think there will be greater interest from expatriates after the Orange Revolution,” said Chris Holzen, IRI Country Director in Ukraine.
Holzen said IRI will try to complement other staff in its observer missions, which are funded by grants from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
“We are seeking expatriates who live in Ukraine, who will be here on March 26, and who would like to register as an IRI election observer,” said Holzen.
He says the volunteer observers will go through a one-day training program that will explain Ukraine’s election law and the standards of election observation missions.
IRI handled nine inquires as of Jan. 25.
Out of the 80 observers that IRI sent to voting stations during the 2004 presidential elections, 20 were local foreigners. The rest came from outside Ukraine.
Holzen hopes that this year, due to increased interest in Ukrainian politics, there will be more ex-pats in each mission. He said it’s still too early to say how many more, though.
USAID-funded missions will recruit more than 5,000 observers in total – both domestic and international, the agency’s staff reported.
USAID, which has been a major sponsor of democracy initiatives in Ukraine for years, has provided $2.5 million to monitor this year’s elections, a USAID official said. The funding represents about one-fifth of the total funds provided by the agency for election assistance activities in Ukraine this year.
“While the funding for both [presidential and parliamentary] elections was substantial, it is less for this year’s parliamentary elections,” said Kathryn Stevens, director of the USAID office for democracy and governance.
Stevens declined to say how much was spent for election monitoring during the 2004 presidential elections.
In total, the agency funded about $18.3 million worth of projects in Ukraine last year and plans to spend about $13.3 million this year.Apart from IRI-coordinated monitoring, USAID will also fund observation missions carried out and supported by the Kyiv-based Committee of Voters of Ukraine, the National Democratic Institute, and Freedom House.
