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CIS to send 271 observers to monitor parliamentary elections in Ukraine

The Commonwealth of Independent States will send its observer mission to Ukraine to monitor the October 28 parliamentary elections

KIEV, October 26 (Itar-Tass) — The Commonwealth of Independent States will send its observer mission to Ukraine to monitor the October 28 parliamentary elections.

Vladimir Garkun, the CIS mission’s head, met Igor Temkizhev, chairman of Ukraine’s High Administrative Court, on Thursday to discuss preparations for the elections.

Garkun told Temkikzhev about principles of forming the mission and its work. He also spoke about the results of long-term monitoring of the election campaign and emphasized that the monitoring had been carried out independently.

The CIS observer mission comprises 271 people, including representatives of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the CIS member states, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia as well as the CIS Executive Committee.

CIS observers have visited 15 regions in Ukraine, the Autonomous Republic of the Crimea and the city of Kiev since the start of the election campaign to analyze the work of territorial and district electoral commissions.

The CIS mission’s headquarters jointly with experts of the International Institute for Monitoring the Development of Democracy, Parliamentarianism and Observation of voting rights of citizens of the CIS member-states and the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the CIS member-countries analyzed Ukraine’s election laws. The CIS monitors will set forth their views in a final document to be published after October 28.

In the meantime, the Russian State Duma is also planning to send its observers to monitor the Ukrainian elections on October 28. Leonid Slutsky, the head of the Russian State Duma Committee for CIS Affairs and Relations with Compatriots Residing Abroad, said on Thursday that the delegation of Russian deputies would be formed on a quota principle and would be headed by Dmitry Sablin, the first deputy head of the Committee for CIS Affairs.

The State Duma observer mission will also comprise Alexei Didenko, Svetlana Goryacheva, Oleg Lebedev, Kazbek Naisayeva, Elena Senatorova and Umakhan Umakhanov.

“Parliamentary elections in Ukraine promise to be interesting and complex. We are going to follow the voting with great attention,” Slutsky said. He also said that the Committee for CIS Affairs would discuss the observers’ work at its meeting next Thursday, November 1.

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