Election Observation Missions: Ukraine 2019 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections

The project aims to set up and deploy two election observation missions: one for the presidential election process and one for the parliamentary election process in Ukraine both to be held in 2019. The purpose of the project is to support more transparent accountable inclusive and gender-responsive electoral processes in Ukraine. These two missions are composed of up to 100 Canadian long-term election observers (LTOs) with a gender and regional balance. The missions are managed by a core team located in Kyiv and are deployed to all regions of Ukraine. The activities of the LTO missions include: (1) observe and report on both electoral processes for up to three months prior to and following Election Day; (2) establish working relationships with stakeholders including the Central Election Commission of Ukraine regional and local authorities civil society groups such as organizations promoting women and minority rights international organizations and other electoral observation missions; and (3) liaise with the media in Canada and Ukraine to ensure visibility of the electoral observation process. The project seeks to screen and recruit up to 500 Canadian short-term election observers (STOs) ensuring gender and geographical balance; and deploy them to the presidential and parliamentary electoral observation missions of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and contribute to the final reports.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) recommendations and suggested corrective measures on the electoral process acknowledged and accepted by Ukrainian authorities and the international community especially concerning gender equality issues; and (2) increased confidence of women and men including vulnerable groups in the legitimacy of the 2019 election results by both the people of Ukraine and the international community.