OSCE/ODIHR Director Link says Office is ready to observe local elections in eastern Ukraine

WARSAW, 12 February 2015 – Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) said today that his Office is ready to observe local elections that could be held as part of the ceasefire agreement on eastern Ukraine reached in Minsk.

“ODIHR is ready to deploy observers to the east of Ukraine once the specifics of the local elections there can be worked out,” Link said. “There has to be confidence in the results of these elections if today’s agreement is to be fully realized, and the kind of impartial, professional observation we are ready to provide can be an important factor in providing such confidence.”

ODIHR sent election observation missions for both the early presidential and early parliamentary elections held in Ukraine in 2014. The local elections called for in the agreement would be the 12th elections the Office has observed in Ukraine since 1998.

Among the elements of the agreement reached among France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine early today, after a marathon negotiation session in Minsk, is the requirement to begin, on the day after the implementation of the ceasefire, a dialogue on the holding of elections in the two eastern regions in line with Ukrainian legislation, as well as relevant OSCE standards, and that the elections be observed by ODIHR.