Ukraine’s election process is in decline, according to the latest report by Freedom House on reform in the former Communist states of Europe and Eurasia.
In its annual Nations
in Transit study, the U.S.-based non-governmental research and
advocacy organization rated the country’s electoral process a 4 for
2012, up from its rating of 3.75 in 2011, signifying a decrease. The
numeric ratings are based on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 representing
the highest and 7 the lowest level of democratic progress.
Ukraine’s ratings
in six of seven total categories remained unchanged between 2011 and
2012 reports.
The NGO noted last
October’s parliamentary elections, which were marred by numerous
reports of ballot tampering, delayed vote counts and other
irregularities, as the main reason for the decline. At the time, the
country’s biggest election watchdog organization, OPORA, said the
elections “didn’t meet basic democratic standards” and called
them a “regression.”
The electoral process
is also one area outlined by the EU as needing improvement in order
for Ukraine to sign much anticipated Association and Deep and
Comprehensive Free Trade agreements with the 27-country at a summit
in Vilnius this fall.
The report
specifically references an election law adopted a year before the
October vote that introduced a mixed proportional and single mandate
system that favored President Viktor Yanukovych’s ruling Party of
Regions. In most regions the party won a slim majority, even in cases
where the country’s electorate did not vote for it.
“Party of Regions
candidates in single mandate districts benefited from administrative
resources, contributing to international monitors’ conclusion that
the elections were characterized by ‘the lack of a level playing
field.’ Other problems included a lack of transparency in party
financing and the tabulation process,” the report adds.
The imprisonment of
former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is serving a seven-year
sentence for abuse of power for brokering a gas deal with Russia
while in office, and her key ally, former Interior Minister Yuriy
Lutsenko, being barred from running in the elections also accounted
for the decline, the report notes. The latter has since been pardoned
by Yanukovych and released.
But Ukraine wasn’t
the only country that backslid. The watchdog’s report showed an
overall decline in some other key areas, such as corruption, media
censorship, and violence against political opponents in Eastern
Europe and Central Asia.
In particular,
Freedom House noted significant declines in these areas in Russia
(which now has a rating of 6.21), Tajikistan (6.25), Kazakhstan
(6.57), Azerbaijan (6.64), Belarus (6.71), Turkmenistan (6.93) and
Uzbekistan (6.93).
Speaking this week
about Russia’s ratings, Freedom House President David Kramer said
President Vladimir Putin’s return to office in 2012 brought a
return of “the worst repression Russians have suffered since the
fall of the Soviet Union.” New policies imposed by him during this
time have been “designed to muzzle political opposition and civic
society activism.”
The Nations in
Transit is Freedom House’s annual report that tracks the reform
record of 29 countries and administrative areas in seven categories:
electoral process, civil society, independent media, national
democratic governance, local democratic governance, judicial
framework and independence, and corruption.
Kyiv
Post editor Christopher J. Miller can be reached
at [email protected],
or on Twitter at @ChristopherJM.
