UKRAINE’S SECOND RUNOFF ELECTION

On Friday, December 3, 2004, the Supreme Court of Ukraine voided the results of the runoff election held on November 21 and mandated that a second runoff be held within three weeks.

The following day, the Central Elections Commission announced that the runoff would take place on December 26, 2004. In light of this information, irrespective of the ultimate composition of the CEC or the supervision over the second runoff, the Ukrainian World Congress calls upon all

Ukrainians in the Diaspora to prepare for the elections as scheduled.

According to Ukraine’s Law on the Election of the Presidents, lists of voters utilized during the runoff election will undergo corrections/additions. We urge Ukraine’s citizens abroad who did not participate in either previous rounds, to communicate immediately with the election precinct nearest them, to ascertain whether they appear on the existing list. If not, we urge them to visit that precinct no later than by December 18, show their passport for travel abroad and sign a statement in order to be included in the list of voters.

We encourage non-citizens of Ukraine, who are not accredited as international observers, but have the capacity to serve as such in the next round either in Ukraine or in the precincts abroad, to communicate with any of the following providing your name, surname, patronymic, address, profession, passport number, issuing country, citizenship, place of work, expertise on election monitoring as well as anticipated duration of stay in Ukraine: UWC at (416) 323-3020 or congress@look.ca; Ukrainian Congress Committee of America at (212) 228-6841 or ucca@ucca.org; Ukrainian Canadian Congress at (866) 942-4627 or ucc@ucc.ca.

The significance of these elections is overwhelming. We appeal once again to Ukrainian citizens abroad who have been included in voter lists and who will do so by December 18, 2004, to come out and vote on December 26, 2004. We urge accredited international observers to sacrifice their time once again, travel to Ukraine, in particular to locations where in the past falsification was particularly flagrant, or, at the very least, participate as observers at voting precincts abroad. Since the election has been scheduled during the holiday season, we urge our central national representations to appeal to their governments, non-governmental organizations and the media in their countries to participate notwithstanding the inconvenience.

We continue to insist that the elections must be supervised by the international community, with a CEC of new composition, elimination of wandering ballots and allowance for equal media access both to the two candidates and all voters. Finally, it is imperative that the international community ensures Russia’s non-interference in the electoral process.

Toronto-New York, December 6, 2004
For the Ukrainian World Congress