UKRAINE CRITICISED FOR TAKING A "STEP BACKWARDS"

October 29, 2012

The Party of Regions, the Ukrainian pro-Russian party of President Victor Yanukovich, is on course to win a comfortable majority with the support of its traditional political allies. The party and its coalition partners are set to gain more than half of the 450 seats in the parliamentary assembly, thus allowing the incumbent an easy ride before his likely re-election bid in 2015. The new liberal party, UDAR of Vitaliy Klychko, led by Heavyweight boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko did fairly well, as did the far right nationalist party.

Whilst some independent observers were satisfied with the electoral process, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which sent more than 600 observers, expressed deep concerns regarding the fairness of the poll. Objections included "lack of transparency" with regards to campaign funding and a marked bias towards Mr Yanukovich's party by the permitted media. There are also serious doubts about the legitimacy of the continued detention of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko who was arrested on unsound and politically motivated charges, after having lost the last Presidential election to Mr Yanukovich in 2010. She has now started another hunger strike.

The overall assessment was that the way this election was conducted was a disappointing "step backwards" (alluding to the autocratic leadership of Leonid Kuchma in the 1990s). It is a great pity that this with all the potential Ukraine had to nudge Russia into the right direction, it had decided to follow it into dark days reminiscent of the worse that was the USSR.