Ukraine’s ruling party was set yesterday to beat the allies of jailed ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko in legislative elections that observers condemned as a setback for the ex-Soviet state’s nascent democracy.
One should not have to visit a prison to hear from politicians
Prime Minister Mykola Azarov predicted that the Regions Party had won an outright majority in Sunday’s ballot following a disappointing performance by another opposition group led by world heavyweight boxer Vitaly Klitschko.
But observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) issued an unusually strong statement describing the election process as a step backwards for Ukraine.
“Considering the abuse of power, and the excessive role of money in this election, democratic progress appears to have reversed in Ukraine,” said OSCE special coordinator Walburga Habsburg Douglas.
“One should not have to visit a prison to hear from leading political figures in the country.”
Ukraine’s 2010 presidential election – which saw Viktor Yanukovych defeat Tymoshenko amid disappointment over the fruits of the 2004 Orange Revolution popular uprising – had been hailed by observers as the cleanest ever in the ex-Soviet Union.
“Certain aspects of the pre-election period constituted a step backwards compared with recent national elections,” the OSCE report said.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry quickly issued a statement in which it vowed to “carefully analyse” the observers’ criticisms and “improve the election legislation and practice.”
The criticism by the OSCE is all the more bitter for Ukraine as it is due to take the chairmanship of the body in 2013.
Official results gave Yanukovych’s Regions Party 33.2 per cent of the vote against 23.2 per cent for Tymoshenko’s opposition party with 73 per cent of precincts reporting in the proportional system that will determine half the seats in the new chamber. The ruling party was also on course to win at least 114 seats out of the 225 that are being determined by first-past-the-post single mandate constituencies. Tymoshenko’s party said it had conducted a parallel count which showed the Regions Party leading her faction by a much narrower margin of just over four per cent – an outcome which had also been predicted by exit polls.