Ukraine's European colleagues from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) are well aware of the situation surrounding the upcoming parliamentary elections in Ukraine, the deputy head of the Ukrainian parliament's permanent delegation to the PACE, Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense MP Olha Herasymiuk, has said.
She said that such a conclusion could be drawn from her communications on the sidelines of PACE meetings.
“A large group of PACE observers is being prepared for the parliamentary elections in Ukraine,” she said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine by phone from Paris on Tuesday.
She said that the PACE was “concerned about the process of the formation of election commissions in Ukraine.” She said that her European colleagues were aware of reshuffles in the compositions of election commissions and possible “resales” in their composition, as well as a large number of technical parties that will participate in the elections.
“The PACE is well aware of the hot spots,” Herasymiuk said.
She said the preparations for the parliamentary elections in Ukraine were being overseen by PACE colleagues, as “there is a well-known PACE resolution on Ukraine.”
As reported, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) called on Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych to consider all possible means to release former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and other members of the former government and also to enable them to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections. The assembly also called on the Ukrainian authorities to promptly change the two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine under which Tymoshenko was convicted, in line with the standards of the Council of Europe and to drop charges against former government officials.
Such an amendment to the resolution on the functioning of democratic institutions in Ukraine was supported during the vote in Strasbourg on January 26, 2012.
