UCC Election Mission Departs for Ukraine

A team of 150 Ukrainian-Canadians who are taking part in the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) election observer mission have started their work in Ukraine, the UCC reported on March 17.

The observers will be monitoring the Ukrainian parliamentary elections on March 26.  The participants are volunteers who are paying their own way to travel to Ukraine as part of the UCC’s mission.

“All Canadians can take considerable pride and satisfaction from the fact that so many members of our community have taken upon themselves to be in Ukraine next week to observe and monitor these very important parliamentary elections,” said UCC president Orysia Sushko.

In Edmonton, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress-Alberta Provincial Council, held a fundraising banquet in February to help  defray the costs for their community’s observers. Numerous dignitaries, including His Eminence Metropolitan John attended. Laurie Hawn, MP for Edmonton Centre and John Williams, MP for St. Albert, also attended.

“There is no guarantee that a democratic process will automatically extend to the parliamentary elections, and for this reason, it is vital that a significant number of International Observers once again be present,” said Luba Boyko-Bell, the Vice President of the National Executive Ukrainian Women’s Organization of Western Canada  at the Edmonton fundraiser. Boyko-Bell is travelling to Ukraine as an observer with the UCC’s mission.

Preparations for the mission have been taking place since December 2005, when the UCC mandated a committee chaired by Taras Pidzamecky, Chief Executive Officer of the Ukrainian Credit Union Limited in Toronto, to prepare for the deployment of the mission.

Since early March, the UCC’s Chief Observer, Marc Shwec, has been in Kyiv preparing for the arrival of the UCC team. The participants will undergo training before traveling to various regions of Ukraine before Election Day on March 26.

On March 27, the UCC team will issue its initial report.

The UCC team is one of many others who are also monitoring the Ukrainian elections.

According to the head of Ukraine’s Central Election Commission, Yaroslav Davydovych, 3,518 official international observers will monitor the parliamentary elections in Ukraine.

Among the organizations sending observers are the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the European Parliament, the Commonwealth of Independent States’ Interparliamentary Assembly Council, the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, the Ukrainian World Congress, and the International Union of Komsomol Organizations.