The Committee of Voters of Ukraine is the all-Ukrainian NGO that has been performing comprehensive monitoring of campaigns in Ukraine in terms of observance of the national legislation and international standards of fair and democratic election by all stakeholders since 1994. From the moment when the snap parliamentary election campaign started, the CVU monitored the election process.

On August 13, 2007 Central Election Commission complied with all-Ukrainian non-governement civic organization’s “Committee of voters of Ukraine” petition about authorization to have official observers at the early elections of people’s deputies of Ukraine on September 30, 2007.

1. The Committee of Voters considers that early parliamentary election will be held on September 30, 2007 with a probability of 90 per cent. However, the CVU is highly concerned about possible violations in the course of campaigning, voting procedure, and, mainly, vote tabulation.

CVU Executive director Yevgen Poberezhny took part in the John Smith Fellowship - an intensive, five-week programme on good governance, democracy and social justice. The Programme combines a seminar series, placements and visits designed to give an insight into democratic practice. Core themes include good governance, the rule of law, social justice, tolerance and the democratic accountability.

On the third of June, 2007, local elections took place in the Republic of Moldova. The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) deployed an Election Observation Mission (EOM) to Moldova on 24 April. Viktor Zuyev from the CVU Odessa oblast organization took part in the ODIHR Mission as Short term observer. Milena Zherdiy, CVU international secretary, works with ODIHR as a Long term observer.

The Committee of Voters of Ukraine is concerned about negotiations on holding the early election in Ukraine. The CVU is indignant at the fact that such important issues as amending the Law on National Deputies are considered without representatives of civil and expert communities. Some proposals of policymakers on amendments to the election law are of speculative nature. If implemented, they may hamper efficient organization of the campaign and determination of the election results.

On 12 May 2007 in Almaty border services of the Republic Kazakhstan had refused to Executive Director of Committee of voters Yevgen Poberezhny in access to territory of the country. Yevgen Poberezhny has visited Kazakhstan in order to participate in conference “Local election observations: international experience”. Conference was organized by coalition of Kazakh civic organizations “Republican network of independent observers” with the support of OSCE.

Political crisis in Ukraine came to a boil. Controversies between political forces are so deep that any further escalation would bring about disastrous consequences for the Ukrainian nation. At the same time, the majority of decision-makers have realized that the only way to overcome the political crisis is to hold snap election of national deputies in 2007. Ukrainian people are of the same mind. According to survey of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, about 80 per cent of Ukrainians are going to take part in the early election — the figure is unique even for regular elections.

During the first half of April 2007 several parties conducted meetings and nominated their candidates to Parliament. Particularly, according to CVU information, oblast conferences and congresses of the following parties were held: NSNU (People’s union Our Ukraine), “Batkivschyna” (Motherland), Ukrainian social-democratic party, Party “Reforms and order”, Ukrainian people’s party, Christian-democratic Union, “Forza, Ukraine!”, Peoples movement of Ukraine.

After publication of the Presidential decree on early election the CVU experts examined challenges dealing with organization and conduction of the election. Based on results of examination, the CVU concludes that: 1. Democratic early election may be held if major political forces, pubic authorities come to an understanding about terms and methods of campaigning. Otherwise, legitimacy of the campaign and election results would be threatened because of inadequate legislative regulation and severe political confrontation.

Committee of voters of Ukraine will held a press conference and a web-conference “Early elections: possible threats and ways to overcome”. The conference will start April 5 2007 at 1 p. m. at Internet newspaper Obozrevatel press center (Panasa Myrnogo st. 17).

Situation with the presidential decree on dissolution of Parliament shows that Ukraine actually has diarchy. At that, neither party is willing to give up. Both rivals resort to shady measures. Interference of local councils, which take sides with the President or VR, only aggravates the crisis. Therefore, the CVU recommends local councils to abstain from such acts.

On March, 16th, 2007 press conference of a management of Committee of voters of Ukraine „Imperative mandate: last word to be said by the Constitutional Court ” took place in Kiev. Head of CVU Board Igor Popov and CVU speaker Olexander Chernenko have participated in press conference. Participants of press conference have informed publicity, that CVU has leaded the analysis of precedents of application of the imperative mandate and actions of proceeding concerning it.

In the course of the year after the last parliamentary and local elections the Committee of voters of Ukraine had been conducting a monitoring of elected governmental bodies’ interaction with voters in proportional election system environment. Based on monitoring results, the CVU concludes that:

1. During the year after March 26 2006 elections all-Ukrainian and local representative bodies in Ukraine were mainly busy with struggle for influence and power, instead of fulfilling the pre-electoral programs and promises.

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) deployed an Election Assessment Mission to Estonia today for the 4 March election to the Riigikogu (parliament). The deployment follows an invitation from the Estonian government.