Ukrainians won’t be the only ones flocking to the polls on July 21. They’ll be joined by people from all over the world — albeit in attendance for a different reason.
As Ukraine prepares to vote for a new parliament, international election observers are ready, with 21 organizations contributing observers to assess the country’s compliance with democratic standards.
Ukraine’s Central Election Commission expects 1,600 international election observers.
“One of the things that we underline is that there are many shortcomings with regards to electoral law, and that there are lots of things that need to be addressed,” Pierre Peytier, a political analyst with the European Network of Elections Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), told the Kyiv Post. “That said, there have definitely been improvements from election to election, and we definitely consider Ukraine to be going in the right direction.”
Free and fair
The decision to hold parliamentary elections several months ahead of schedule has forced quick action.
ENEMO’s Peytier says it is a challenge to mobilize observers on such short notice, citing a drop in short-term ENEMO observers from 300 during the spring presidential election to 78 for the upcoming parliamentary one. The condensed timeline has also proved difficult when trying to secure funding.
“The early election has definitely been a major challenge not only for us, but also for election stakeholders in general — the Central Election Commission… (and) the political parties that have had to organize their campaigns and candidates on very short timelines,” he said.
International Republican Institute’s (IRI) resident program director Michael Druckman reported that the organization has one of the largest delegations to date.
“We’re interested in a mix of experiences and a diverse group of individuals, so that it’s a transatlantic experience — individuals with experience not only with European elections, but particularly the post-Soviet space,” says Druckman.
Observers will be deployed in pairs across the country. Their presence at polling stations must be unobtrusive.
“We are observers. We are not supervisors. We are not interested in the outcome of the elections. We are interested in the process,” says Albert Jónsson, head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights mission in Ukraine.
It issues its preliminary findings the day after the vote.
One country will not have observers in attendance: Russian nationals have not been allowed to participate.
Electoral progress
Experts have noted improvements with respect to the fairness and validity of the electoral process.
“The 2004 presidential elections were basically fraudulent elections, and I think that, if you compare today to 15 years ago, Ukraine has definitely come a long way, in terms of both the legal and electoral framework that is currently in place,” says Peytier.
Olya Odynska-Grod, deputy head of mission at the Canadian CANADEM non-profit election monitoring group, said: “The key thing is that it appears we have been seeing larger numbers of people actually coming out to vote, especially youth. We have also seen that there appears to be more women in politics than there were before. The numbers are still not very high, but they seem to be improving.”
ENEMO reports that “only slightly over half of the parties in the nationwide district respected the obligation to include 30% of women candidates in their lists. In total, approximately 22,5% of candidates in the election are women.”
Odynska-Grod emphasizes Canada’s commitment to the participation of women. The Canadian government has recently announced “over $45 million in support for Ukraine, of which $25 million is earmarked for the implementation of inclusive and gender-responsive reforms.”
Druckman told the Kyiv Post that monitors will pay special attention to several issues, including illegal campaigning, signs of intimidation, media coverage and polling station accessibility.
Of particular concern are “clone candidates,” says Odynska-Grod, a phenomenon when candidates with similar names run in the same race to confuse voters.
Peytier also stressed the challenge of monitoring the election in eastern Ukraine’s conflict areas, where Russia has been waging war since 2014. “It’s a difficult and delicate area to hold an election,” says Peytier.
Looking to the future
Parliament recently passed a series of laws ed to eliminate single-member districts and switch to open-party lists starting in 2023 — a move that experts hope will increase transparency and reduce corruption. “This is definitely a step forward, in the sense that I think that Ukraine really needs a standardized, streamlined electoral code,” says Peytier.
However, the new code does not address the enfranchisement of internally-displaced persons. “There are about 1.6 million people in Ukraine who, in elections, are not fully able to vote,” he says.
Experts also want more transparency in campaign financing. “There is still time between now and 2023 to amend the text that was adopted. That will be one of the challenges that the new parliament will have to tackle in time,” says Peytier.
