On 26 December about three thousand Polish observers, sent by the OSCE and ENEMO, the student organisation Free Ukraine, the political parties Law and Justice and the Freedom Union, monitored the repeat second round of the presidential election in the Ukraine.
Following the annulment of the presidential elections of 21 November, non-government organizations and political parties appealed for the support of democratic reforms in the Ukraine and for volunteers, wishing to participate in the monitoring of the 26 December repeat elections, to come forward. First and foremost, young people, active within student organizations and parties, as well as people associated with the Greek Catholic and Catholic Church, answered the appeal. Some decided to make the trip for the sake of their family ties; however others wished to join in the democratic movement, because they did not have the opportunity to actively participate in the political transformations in Poland as a result of their young age.
The political party Law and Justice sent 1200 people (they only received this many accreditations from the Central Election Committee in Kiev – there were many more volunteers). The informal student group Free Ukraine (supported by, among others, the Schuman Foundation, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, The Stefan Batory Foundation, the Polish Ukrainians Organization, as well as the Polish-Ukrainian Forum) sent 230 people to Charkov and Zakarpatie. A 50-person group of observers, made up of members and supporters of the party Freedom Union, traveled to the Crimea. A few dozen Poles also traveled as part of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations missions.
The result of the observers’ work on Sunday was the preparation of reports describing the transgressions and violations of the electoral procedures. They are available on the internet sites:
http://www.wolnaukraina.pl/misja_aktualnosci.php – in Polish
http://www.enemo.org.ua/DEC26STATEMENTENG.pdf – in English
