The Open Dialog Foundation hereby expresses its concern over the commencement of the activity of the CIS-EMO organisation’s mission in Ukraine, and hence, it urges the members of the international missions which monitor the electoral process to be ready for provocations and falsifications of data during the course of the parliamentary elections in Ukraine.
On Wednesday, the 19th of September, at 12.00, in the press centre of the information agency ‘Interfax-Ukraine’, a press conference of the president of the CIS-EMO, Aleksey Kochetkov on the topic “The CIS-EMO starts work during the elections in Ukraine”, was held. In his speech, Aleksey Kochetkov outlined action plans, which include the monitoring of the parliamentary elections in Ukraine, the surveillance of the activity of the subjects of the political process, social initiatives and other observation missions.
Taking into account:
I. The proximity of the CIS-EMO management to the national structures of the Russian Federation;
II. The previous CIS-EMO’s statements on the elections in Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan etc., that denied the statements of the OSCE mission as well as other missions from democratic countries;
The Open Dialog Foundation hereby expresses its concern over the activity of the CIS-EMO organisation’s mission in Ukraine, and urges the members of the international missions which monitor the electoral process to be ready for provocations and falsifications of data during the course of the parliamentary elections in Ukraine.
According to the experts from the Open Dialog Foundation, the CIS-EMO organisation seeks to distort objective monitoring of the electoral process in Ukraine in order to legitimise the results which are favorable to the ruling circles of the Russian Federation. This casts doubt over its status as a non-governmental organisation.
Reference information:
The International Organisation for Election Observation ‘CIS-EMO’ was created and registered in Russia in September, 2003, as an international non-governmental organisation. The founders of the Foundation are the three state structures: the CEC of Russia, the Institute of Social and Political Studies and Kutafin Moscow State Law Academy.
After the second round of the presidential elections (in 2004), Chairman of the CIS-EMO Aleksey Kochetkov recognised the election of the candidate of the governing authority V.Yanukovich as legitimate, not paying attention to violations, which had been reported in the OSCE report. Lest we forget that the results were later voided by the Ukrainian CEC and a new round of elections was held, this time the opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko won.
In 2008, during the armed conflict in Georgia, the President of the CIS-EMO, Aleksey Kochetkov was the organiser of the international press centre “Tskhinval-2008”, which was transferred to the Ministry of Press and Mass Communications of the Republic of South Ossetia, whose independence has been recognised only by Russia, Nicaragua, Nauru, Venezuela and Tuvalu.