November 27, 2013 - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird met with the President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Paul Grod, to discuss issues confronting Ukrainian democracy and today issued the following statement:
“The transparency and integrity of the voting process was compromised in five electoral districts in Ukraine's last parliamentary elections, and repeat elections will now take place on December 15, 2013.
“Canada is proud to have deployed 500 Canadian election observers to monitor Ukraine’s parliamentary elections in 2012.
“During those elections, independent Ukrainian and international election monitors pointed to government interference as well as significant flaws and irregularities in the voting process.
“To help monitor the repeat election, Canadian will send an observation mission. The first of the team’s 25 observers will be deploying to Ukraine this week.
“This is about supporting the people of Ukraine in their difficult journey toward democracy. They will see an enhanced international election-monitoring presence in their country, and improved electoral processes that discourage election fraud and support free and fair elections.
“We welcome the Ukrainian-Canadian community’s contribution to international election-observation efforts of the Ukrainian World Congress, which will run an observation mission in parallel with the Canadian mission.
“This mission is a demonstration of Canada‘s continuing commitment to supporting democratic development and the rule of law for all Ukrainians.”
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