he Ukrainian president's party will retain its strong grip on power, according to returns Monday from a parliamentary election that was criticized by Western observers as unfair and biased against the opposition.
The West was paying
close attention to Sunday’s vote in the strategic ex-Soviet state of 46
million people, which lies between Russia and the European Union and
serves as a key transit nation for Russian energy supplies to many EU
countries.
Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe called the vote a setback to Ukraine’s
democratic and European aspirations. That assessment could lead to a
further freeze in Kiev’s ties with the West and push it closer to
Russia.
Monitors said the election was marred by the absence of
jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and another opposition
leader, the ruling party’s use of government funding for the campaign
and the skewed media coverage that favored the ruling party. While the
voting process got positive ratings at most polling stations observed,
the vote tallying lacked transparency, the group said.
“Considering
the abuse of power and the excessive role of money in this election,
democratic progress appears to have reversed in Ukraine,”
said Walburga Habsburg Douglas, the special coordinator who led the
OSCE election observation mission. “We do not think that this election
was fair because it was not level.”
“Ukrainians deserved better
from these elections,” said Andreas Gross, the Head of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe delegation. “Unfortunately, the great
democratic potential of Ukrainian society was not realized in
yesterday’s vote.”
President Viktor Yanukovych’s Russia-friendly
Party of Regions was leading in the count with 34 percent of the vote.
Tymoshenko’s pro-Western party was second with 23 percent, trailed by
the Communists, Yanukovych’s traditional allies, with 15 percent.
Another liberal party, Udar (Punch), led by world boxing champion Vitali
Klitschko had 13 percent and the far-right Svoboda (Freedom) party had 9
percent.
Yanukovych’s party benefited strongly from an electoral
change last year that replaced the strictly proportional electoral
system with a mixed one, in which half of parliament’s seats are elected
based on party lists and the other half in individual races.
Despite
a combined strong showing of opposition parties, Yanukovych’s party was
poised to retain its parliamentary majority as its candidates were
expected to take the lead in individual races, benefitting from greater
access to government funds and the opposition’s fielding of multiple
candidates.
Tymoshenko’s party alleged widespread violations such
as vote-buying and multiple voting. Tymoshenko, who was sentenced last
year to seven years in prison for abuse of office in a trial condemned
by the West as politically motivated, launched a hunger strike to
protest the vote violations.
The Party of Regions defended Sunday’s election, saying it reflected the people’s will.
“We
received a great credit of trust from the voters who said that we are
moving down the right path,” said Yanukovych adviser Hanna Herman.
The
opposition tapped into the anger over Tymoshenko’s jailing, the
country’s rampant corruption and a stagnant economy to make a strong
showing in the proportional section of the vote. It remains to be seen
whether Tymoshenko’s group, Klitschko’s party and the radical Svoboda
can form a strong alliance.
“The Party of Regions won by the
number of points, but the opposition scored a moral victory,” said
Kiev-based political expert Volodymyr Fesenko. “The monopoly on power
will be harder to maintain.”
Experts say while Yanukovych’s
supporters seem poised to retain their parliament majority, they will
fall short of winning the two-thirds of seats needed to change the
constitution.
Political analyst Vadym Karasyov said the new
parliament will be “turbulent” and the opposition will seek to block
some of the undemocratic initiatives the president may launch.
“Yanukovych
can get a simple majority, but it doesn’t mean anything, because
without a constitutional majority in parliament he cannot radically
change anything,” Karasyov said.
The showing of the far-right
Svoboda party, which had been expected to barely pass the 5 percent vote
threshold, emerged as a big surprise.
Svoboda, which campaigns
for the preservation of the Ukrainian language and culture and strongly
attacks Yanukovych, is also known for xenophobic and anti-Semitic
rhetoric. Analysts said the party’s popularity was due more to many
Ukrainians’ anger with the ruling party than vehemently nationalist views.
