Ukraine’s Central Election Commission registered 3,700 observers ahead of Oct. 28 parliament elections in Ukraine, the highest number since the 2004 presidential elections.
Most of their
interim reports produced up to date report violations in single candidate
constituencies.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe with its 635 observers
sent the largest delegation to Ukraine. In addition, there are missions of Enemo,
European network of elections monitoring organizations, Canadian observers, Commonwealth of the Independent States representatives
and others.
“Most of (the
observers) report that the majority of violations occur in single mandate constituency.
While people who work for political parties understand what the standards of
elections are and know the legislature, those working on single mandate
constituencies, often have no idea about any standards and requirements,” says
Oleksandr Chernenko, chairman of
the Committee of Voters of Ukraine.
As many
observers have been monitoring situation in Ukraine since early August some
have issued their interim reports.
“Most observers
praise the improvement of the quality of state list of voters, which becomes
better with each election,” says Chernenko.
Many are also
praising the new law for preventing single mandate candidates from transferring
voters from district to a district. However,
in most cases, their feedback is critical.
Peter Novotni,
head of Enemo mission in Ukraine said that their mission reports “troubles with
election legislature, formation of district electoral commission, harassment of
candidates, members of the commissions and pressure on media.”
Earlier in
October, Enemo expressed “serious concerns about a lack of effective sanctions
in cases of voter bribery.”
Central Election
Commission issued only warnings to few candidates, Ihor Balenko and David
Zhvaniya among them, who were bribing the voters with gift cards and food supplies.
No administrative or criminal charges were pressed against them.
Enemo
also voices concern over the reports that some candidates are denied media access.
Meanwhile,
observers from CIS – Commonwealth of the Independent
States, a union of the former Soviet Union republics, are much more positive
and already have called the elections democratic.
“We
see competition and choice and, most importantly, as in a proper election, the
winner has not yet been determined. The elections in Ukraine meet all of the
criteria for democratic elections,” Alexei Kochetkov of the CIS-EMO observation
mission said in Kyiv on Oct. 22.
All of the international
observers, however, stress that the most important information will be gathered
on the Oct. 28 elections day, when people will vote and the voices will be
counted. The first, preliminary reports are expected the next day, on Oct. 29.
Some have gotten
themselves into trouble before for criticism before the elections. Head of the PACE observation
mission for parliamentary elections in Ukraine Andreas Gross have called
the elections campaign a “disaster” and a “farce”, speaking to journalists in
late September, saying that one “might think that you
need another democratic revolution”.
Gross’
statement was sharply criticized by some of his colleagues calling for his
dismissal.
Kyiv
Post staff writer Svitlana Tuchynska can be reached at [email protected]
