The Ukrainian government was surprised to hear the negative assessment of the country's election process given by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to a statement of the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine distributed on October 31.
“We were surprised by the sharply negative evaluation of the election
process at absolutely all of its stages expressed by representatives of
the U.S. Department of State, and personally by Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton,” the statement read.
“We do not understand on which data and from what sources our U.S.
partners’ evaluations were based, particularly the declarations that the
official results announced by the Central Election Commission allegedly
differ from the results of exit polls.”
The ministry said that international observers did not notice any
systemic violations at the elections in Ukraine, and moreover “none of
international election observation missions registered attempts to
falsify the results of the voting.”
Clinton also expressed concern about the fact that international
observers were not allowed to monitor the vote counting process at
district election commissions.
“However, that is what the law says, which was approved by both the
ruling majority and the oppositional parties. At the same time, Clinton
missed the fact that representatives of all political forces could watch
the vote counting at all levels, particularly at district commissions,
which allowed them to prevent abuses in the interests of opponents at
all stages,” the ministry said.
The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine also expressed regret that the U.S.
Department of State completely ignored that fact that opposition parties
received the number of seats according to party lists that was forecast
by sociologists.
“We regret that the U.S. Secretary of State tried to connect her
political disputes with the Ukrainian authorities related to the case of
former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko with assessments of
the elections in Ukraine, while members of the Batkivschyna Party by
their active participation in the campaign and public plans regarding
their activities in a new Verkhovna Rada are demonstrating their
reluctance to combine these issues,” reads the document.
“We also consider incorrect the fact that the statements made on
behalf of the U.S. Department of State and Secretary of State did not
mention the positive dynamics in cooperation between the two states in
many directions. We are anticipating fairer conclusions on the October
28 elections. At the same time, the government of Ukraine jointly with a
new parliament will work to eliminate the drawbacks of the election
legislation and its implementations that raised grounded criticism of
international observers,” the ministry said.
