Dispatch of Election Observers to the Presidential Election of Ukraine (Run-off Election)

February 3, 2010
Japanese

The Government of Japan has decided to assign two experts on regional affairs as well as six members of the Embassy of Japan in Ukraine as election observers to support fair conduct of the run-off election of the presidential election of Ukraine, which is scheduled for February 7 (Sun). Four of them, including the two experts, are to be dispatched to the major international election observation mission organized by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe / the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR), while other four members are to be registered at the Central Election Commission of Ukraine as observers of the Government of Japan for their relevant monitoring activities.
The first round of the presidential election was held on January 17 (Sun) upon the expiration of the term of Mr. Viktor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine, and the run-off election was set due to the result of the first round that no candidate gained more than 50 percents of votes. Free and fair conduct of the first presidential election since the “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine in 2004 is of critical importance to the consolidation of democracy of Ukraine. Therefore, more than 600 observers are to be dispatched from major countries to the International Election Observation Mission of OSCE/ODIHR.

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