Mission Further to an announcement on April 23rd, 2014 by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canada will be sending a large, independent team of election observers to monitor the Presidential election in Ukraine, scheduled for May 25th, 2014. The Canadian election observation mission will include 38 long-term and 300 short-term observers. The first group of 100 STOs will be deployed for the first round and 200 for the second. Since 1991, Canada has invested considerable effort and resources in support of Ukraine's democratic transformation, and during this time, Canadian election observers have monitored numerous presidential and parliamentary elections, and helped promote credible elections and adoption of internationally recognized best practices by Ukraine’s electoral establishment. This initiative builds on Canada’s tradition of assisting Ukraine’s ongoing democratic development through bilateral election observation missions. This contingent of election observers is in addition to Canada’s strong contribution of monitors attached to the multilateral observation mission being mounted by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) – bringing Canada’s total contribution of election observers to 500. CANEOM is organized by the Forum of Federations. Cuso International and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress have partnered with CANEOM to support the observation mission for Ukraine’s 2014 Presidential election. The mission is entirely funded by the Government of Canada, and managed at arm’s length. CANEOM’s mandate is to organize and execute election observation and monitoring missions internationally. The mission is not an advocacy mission for federalism or any other kind of governing structure. It is not the role of the election observer mission to advocate, promote or oppose change in Ukraine's constitutional order. The mission's objectives are to observe, record and report on the electoral exercise, and to aggregate findings into a final report on whether the election results may be deemed to reflect the genuine democratic expression of the Ukrainian people. Members of CANEOM’s core team for this mission have experience monitoring elections in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Djibouti, Georgia, Haiti, Indonesia, Lesotho, Mali, Mongolia and Ukraine, with additional democratic development experience in an even greater range of countries. CANEOM will assess Ukraine's electoral process in accordance with international standards, commitments and obligations for genuine democratic elections, including the OSCE's Copenhagen Declaration of 1990 and other international human rights obligations. CANEOM subscribes to the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observers and Code of Conduct for International Election Observers that was commemorated at the United Nations on October 27, 2005, and endorsed by 42 intergovernmental and international organizations. In all of our mission’s activities, CANEOM pledges to adhere to all domestic laws, and to respect the core election observation principles of impartiality and non-interference. CANEOM Management Team for the Canadian Bilateral Election Observation Mission for the 2014 Ukraine Presidential Election Head of Mission – to be announced Yaroslav Baran – Deputy Head of Mission Kevin Colbourne - Mission Director Taras Zalusky – Political Analyst Ann Szyptur – Long Term Observer (LTO) Coordinator Mateusz Trybowski – Electoral Coordinator
PM announces new measures to promote democracy in Ukraine UCC Commends Government of Canada decision to Send Election Observers to Ukraine |
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