Observers say presidential election did not meet international standards (11/07/04)

Observers say presidential election did not meet international standards

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Most international and domestic observers offered severe criticism of Ukraine's presidential elections a day after the October 31 vote, many assessing that the manner in which the process took place was a reversal for Ukraine's democratic development.

"With a heavy heart, we have to conclude that this election did not meet a considerable number of OSCE, Council of Europe and other European standards for democratic elections. Consequently, this election process constitutes a step backward from the 2002 elections," explained Bruce George, the head of the European election observer team organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The authoritative Committee of Voters of Ukraine, which has observed elections in Ukraine since 1994, noted that the most extensive problems with the Ukrainian presidential vote were the numerous inaccuracies in the voter lists and the illegal manner in which the elections commissions were stacked with individuals connected to the government or Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.

The prime minister and National Deputy Viktor Yanukovych were the leading contenders in the October 31 election. The two candidates will face-off in a runoff on November 21 after neither one achieved an absolute majority in the first round.

"The CVU has ascertained that up to 10 percent of citizens who came to vote were denied their right because of the low quality of the voters lists," explained Ihor Popov, CVU president, at a press conference on November 1.

The CVU also stated that on election day itself it noted no major violations.

The Central Election Commission (CEC), the Ukrainian government body that oversees elections in Ukraine, downplayed the assessments by the election monitors. It responded by admitting that, while there were minor violations, nothing serious or extensive took place.

"Voting proceeded calmly at 99 percent of the polling stations," explained CEC member Serhii Dubovyk on November 3.

Earlier, Yaroslav Davydovych, deputy chairman of the CEC, said that the CEC would withhold responding to the reports from the various international monitoring groups until after it had released their final reports, a process that would take several weeks at the very least.

The OSCE observer team was the largest of the international monitoring groups invited by Ukrainian authorities to observe the October 31 vote, the culmination of a process in which 24 candidates vied for the presidency during a brutal and at times violent pre-election campaign.

The European monitoring delegation consisted of 600 observers from the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and its Parliamentary Assembly, as well as the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. More than 4,000 international observers were in Ukraine for the election of Ukraine's third president since independence.

Other international observer teams that criticized the Ukrainian presidential elections included the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute, both from the U.S., the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.

Meanwhile, observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States gave a contrary view, reporting no major flaws or shortcomings in the election process. A group of ex-U.S. congressmen who monitored the vote found themselves agreeing with the CIS group to the extent that they also noted no major violations of democratic principles at the polling stations they had visited on Election Day.

However, the European delegation headed by Mr. George noted "widespread campaign irregularities in the Ukrainian presidential election," including "bias by the state media, interference by the state administration in favor of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, the disruption or obstruction of opposition campaign events by state authorities and inadequacies in the Central Election Commission's handling of complaints."

The OSCE's interim report assessed that voter registration lists were full of errors and omission; that some 40 percent of polling station commission chairpersons were selected subjectively; and that a "significant number of territorial election commissions lacked independence, collegiality and transparency."

The report affirmed the existence of "temnyky," directives from state and government authorities to the mass media on how to present news events so that they were favorable to Mr. Yanukovych, which were used extensively in the pre-election time period. It also noted the illegal use of government finances, property and personnel to advance the candidacy of the Ukrainian prime minister.

The International Republican Institute observer team reported similar violations as those noted by the OSCE monitors, but was more critical in its assessment. The IRI, which fielded a team of 25 election observers for the actual voting process, as well as additional volunteers who assessed the situation in the run-up to the national election, noted that a "systematic and coordinated use of government resources on a national scale created an atmosphere of intimidation and fear designed to pressure people into supporting the government-backed candidate."

The IRI report pointed to "extensive intimidation of voters in all the oblasts of Ukraine," as well as massive problems with voters lists and large problems with illegally created local election commissions.

Michael Trend, a member of Parliament in the United Kingdom and co-chair of the IRI delegation, along with U.S. Federal Judge Bohdan Futey, explained that the IRI had documented complaints of pressure applied by the government to workers in schools, hospitals, state-run business and the transportation sector, including reports from Sumy and Kirovohrad of alleged threats of dismissal against workers who did not support the candidacy of Prime Minister Yanukovych.

Mr. Trend said the IRI observers had found poorly prepared voter lists to be "widespread and systemic," and "not previously seen on this scale." He said that the lists included both omission and incorrect addition of names as well as errors in spellings, addresses and personal data.

"Everybody mentioned that it had not been like this before, and it was very difficult to get straight answers when we asked at the territorial commissions," Mr. Trend underscored.

Both Brussels, headquarters of the European Union, and Washington based statements of dissatisfaction with the manner in which the Ukrainian vote proceeded on the European election observers' report.

Adam Ereli, deputy spokesman of the U.S. Department of State said during the November 1 daily briefing in Washington that the U.S. agreed with the OSCE assessment that the election "did not meet a considerable number of international standards for democratic elections" and thus constituted "a step backward."

"We are disappointed in this," added Mr. Ereli.

The State Department spokesman called on Ukraine to "affirm its commitments to democratic principles" in the run-off scheduled for November 21 and to "allow the people of Ukraine to choose freely."

The presidency of the European Union in Brussels called on Ukraine to "address the noted deficiencies in time for the second round of elections" and to create conditions "to allow for free and fair elections."

Ukrainian diaspora organization, including the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress sent their own delegations of elections observes, both of which negatively assessed the October 31 vote as well.

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress, which represents 1.1 million Ukrainians in Canada, explained in a statement sent to Interfax-Ukraine that it had observed a large number of voting irregularities and noted that "the right to vote had been compromised."

Not every election observer group criticized the way the Ukrainian election was organized and took place. Observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States expressed deep satisfaction with the manner in which Ukraine had held its presidential vote. It noted that the large numbers of international observers rather than intimidation by state authorities "caused nervousness at the polling stations."

Meanwhile a U.S delegation of ex-congressmen, headed by Robert Carr and including former Reps. Ronald Coleman, Mike Ward, Norm D'Amours, Peter Barca, Jay Johnson and Jim Moody, stated on November 1 that it was satisfied with the returns. Mr. Carr noted that on election day his group, whose members observed the election process in Donetsk, Kyiv and Odesa, saw no illegalities and observed transparency in the voting processes. He said there should be no doubt as to the results.

President Leonid Kuchma had noted the day before the vote that it was absurd to even consider that election fraud could take place in Ukraine because in addition to the 4,000 international observers, some 326,000 monitors and representatives of the candidates would scrutinize the elections, as would 1.2 million election workers.

Hanne Severinsen, rapporteur on Ukraine for the Council of Europe said the day after the vote that sanctions against Ukraine for undemocratic presidential elections might be considered by Europe, but only after the second round of voting.

| Home Page |