Van Bommel to act as observer at Ukraine election
Van Bommel to act as observer at Ukraine election
SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel will go to Ukraine this weekend to act as an election observer in Sunday's decisive second round presidential poll. On Friday, the SP international affairs spokesman will visit Kiev for a briefing and a meeting with the two surviving candidates, Prime Minister Julia Timoshenko and opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych. Saturday will see him fly to Odessa for a local briefing in the city in which he will be acting as election observer.
Van Bommel, who will participate as a representative of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, was previously an observer at the parliamentary elections in Russia in December 2007. He will record his experiences in Ukraine in a diary to be published on the SP website, a summary of which will appear on the English-language 'World' page. SP Senator Eric Smalling served as an observer at the first round of the Ukrainian presidential election held on January 15th.