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Canadian Observers Fan Out Across Ukraine to Monitor Parliamentary Polls

Posted on: Sunday, 26 March 2006, 15:00 CST

By FRED WEIR

BROVARI, Ukraine (CP) - Taras Pidzamecki's job began at 6 a.m. Sunday when he walked into the polling station in this small Kyiv-area dormitory town and was confronted by a police officer demanding to see his identification.

Pidzamecki, one of 150 election observers fielded by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress to scrutinize Ukraine's parliamentary polls, replied in fluent Ukrainian that police have no right to be present in a voting station under Ukrainian law.

After making a phone call to his superior, the cop left.

Ukrainians, who voted for a new parliament and several levels of local government Sunday, have grown used to seeing Ukrainian-Canadians, often well-versed in Ukrainian law and custom, come over to inspect their elections.

After fraud-marred presidential polls in 2004, Canada sent 500 official observers to Ukraine, many of them Ukrainian-speaking, while the UCC, a coalition of Ukrainian-Canadian organizations, sent its own delegation of 500 to scrutinize the fresh round of voting that brought pro-Western liberal Viktor Yushchenko to power.

"Being Ukrainian-speaking is an advantage because you can pick up on a lot of the nuances and follow what's going on," says Pidzamecki, a Toronto lawyer and Ukrainian-Canadian activist.

"Obviously too, people are more open to someone who speaks their language."

Canada sent just 40 official observers this time, who have been deployed around Ukraine as part of a 600-member delegation from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Fewer have come from the UCC too, but members say this election lacks the electricity of 2004's Orange Revolution.

"Ukraine was the thing to do last time, a lot of people wanted to be here," says Marc Shwec, chief observer for the UCC group. "Now you see just the most serious people coming."

The UCC team has fanned out across Ukraine, often taking in remote and rural stations that other observers don't normally reach, Shwec says.

There appeared to be plenty of little problems, but nothing really major to deal with Sunday in polling centres around Kyiv.

Voters puzzled over 75 cm-long ballots that offered 45 competing parties for the Supreme Rada, Ukraine's 450-seat parliament, and equally daunting lists for local councils and mayors.

One man, 73-year old Oleh Fyodorchuk, spent nearly an hour studying the pages before heading into the polling booth.

"It's democracy, yes, lots to choose from," said Fyodorchuk, who declined to say how he'd voted.

Wielding a video camera, Pidzamecki recorded complaints from a woman who claimed dirty tricks in the Brovari mayor's race, and several people who said they'd been stripped from local voters' lists unfairly.

"A lot of lessons were learned in 2004, and there is the sense that they've cleaned it up at the parliamentary level," he says. "Now the concern is to bring greater integrity down to the local level. That's one thing we're keeping an eye on."

In 15 months since Yushchenko was elected, Ukraine's economy has slumped and the "orange" team has splintered between supporters of Yushchenko and the former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko.

Pre-election opinion surveys suggested that Viktor Yanukovych, the man accused of rigging the 2004 polls, is set to stage a comeback and possibly win as many votes as Yushchenko and Tymoshenko's blocs combined.

Most groups of election observers will release their judgements of the openness and fairness of the polls on Monday. The UCC, in addition, will produce a detailed report outlining recommendations for improving future elections.

"As a Canadian it's very rewarding to share our democratic values with ordinary Ukrainians, as they're remaking their lives," says Pidzamecki.

Source: Canadian Press

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