KIEV, Dec 19: A total of 8,295 people from more than a dozen foreign countries or international institutions have so far been registered to monitor Ukraine's repeat presidential election on December 26
, Inter fax news agency said on Sunday quoting election officials.
The observers represent key European institutions including the European parliament, the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe as well as eight foreign governments including the United States, Britain and Canada, the officials said.
In last month's annulled election, 5,000 foreign vote monitors had been deployed. The new head of Ukraine's central election commission, Yaroslav Davidovich, stressed on Saturday that organizers were going to extraordinary lengths to ensure that the upcoming election would not be marred by irregularities and fraud like the previous vote that was invalidated by the supreme court.
"We are controlling the entire process very strictly," Davidovich told reporters. "The process will be democratic, well-organized and carried out correctly." The outgoing prime minister Yanukovich was officially declared the winner of the previous vote.
The result was challenged by opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko. The dispute paralyzed the country and revived Cold War-like tensions between Russia and the west. -AFP
