Canada to send team of election observers to Ukraine (03/22/98)

Canada to send team of election observers to Ukraine

by Christopher Guly
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

OTTAWA - Canada is sending 10 observers to monitor Ukraine's March 29 elections to the Verkhovna Rada.

The group will be among 150 short-term observers requested by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on behalf of Ukraine to spend a week in the country monitoring independent Ukraine's second parliamentary elections. Ukraine, Canada and the United States are among the 54 member-states of the OSCE.

The forthcoming election marks the first time the new mixed electoral system will be used to elect deputies to the 450-seat Parliament. Half the representatives will be selected from Ukraine's 225 electoral districts and the other half from rosters of parties that obtain over 4 percent of the total vote in the upcoming election. Canada has allocated $90,000 ($64,300 U.S.) toward the cost of the observer team.

Diane Marleau, Canada's minister for international cooperation, who spent two days in Kyiv in early March, said the country "has made some very important steps" toward democratic reforms. "They've adopted a new Constitution and there is going to be a set of free elections that's part of its democratic evolution," she said in an interview with The Ukrainian Weekly from her Ottawa office. "But probably many more reforms need to come considering [Ukraine's] difficult legacy."

In late February, Ukraine's Constitutional Court ruled that 21 provisions of the country's new election law are unconstitutional, but decided that the necessary changes wouldn't take effect until the 2002 parliamentary elections.

When independent Ukraine held its first parliamentary elections on March 27, 1994, Canada contributed $2.5 million ($1.8 million U.S.) in assistance - the most any country pledged at the time.

Included in the 1994 technical-assistance package:

445 tons of paper bearing special security features to prevent fraud and tampering;
a Canadian elections expert who provided "technical, policy and administrative advice" for three months;
an elections training seminar provided by Elections Canada to Ukraine's Central Election Commission and another for Ukrainian media (including an expert assigned to the Ukrainian State Television and Radio authority in Kyiv); and
printing and distribution of Ukraine's Elections Law, a Citizens Guide to the Law and a Guide to Campaign Organization.

Canada also sent an observer team and another group to monitor the elections.

When asked why Canada is contributing less for this year's Ukrainian parliamentary elections, Ms. Marleau said it reflects the request Canada received. She added that the forthcoming elections weren't mentioned in her recent meetings with Ukrainian officials.

However, what was raised was Canada's concern over the "slow pace of economic reform" occurring in Ukraine, said Ms. Marleau, who is responsible for the Canadian International Development Agency that oversees Canada's financial assistance program to Ukraine. "My message to them was that if they make it impossible for us to help, then help becomes impossible," added Ms. Marleau.

The minister said that following the March 29 elections, Ukraine "will have a critical window of opportunity to pass some laws that would encourage international financial institutions to offer substantially higher volumes of assistance." Ms. Marleau said Ukraine should begin by reforming its taxation and regulatory systems.

While recognizing that Ukraine has emerged from a "heavily regulated" communist system, she said the country has important natural resources from which to draw on in improving its economy. "It has the richest soil on earth, but despite that, they're importing food to feed themselves," said Ms. Marleau.

Since Ukraine declared independence in 1991, Canada has contributed more than $205 million ($146 million U.S.) in assistance.