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Monitors Praise Ukraine Vote, Russia Wants 'Constructive' Government

October 27, 2014
by RFE/RL

International observers have given Ukraine's parliamentary elections a stamp of approval, while Russia said it hopes the vote will ease tension by ushering in a 'constructive' government.

Pro-Europe parties won a sweeping victory in the October 26 vote that Ukrainians hope will strengthen the country after a year of political turmoil and months of warfare against Russian-supported separatists in the east.

Kent Harstedt, special coordinator for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), told a news conference on October 27 that the vote was 'an amply contested election that offered voters real choice, and a general respect for fundamental freedoms.'

He said voting and counting were transparent, election officials were impartial, and the campaign was competitive.

Harstedt added that there were some cases of intimidation and threats and that some media showed a lack of autonomy from political or corporate interests.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said made it clear that Moscow would accept the results despite what he alleged were 'multiple violations' during the campaign and 'forceful methods that were applied to a whole range of candidates.'

Moscow hopes the election leads to the formation of a government 'that will be constructive, not bent on continuing to escalate confrontation in society and with Russia,' Lavrov told state-run Russian news agency TASS.

He repeated the Kremlin's calls for Kyiv to engage in direct dialogue with Ukraine's regions, including those held by pro-Russian separatists.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso congratulated the people of Ukraine, calling the election in a tweet a 'victory of democracy and European reforms' agenda.'

European Parliament President Martin Schulz said Ukrainians 'can be proud of what they have achieved, of the freedom that they have regained through these orderly, fair, and pluralist elections.'

Partial results show Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's People's Front and President Petro Poroshenko's bloc in a virtual tie with 21.61 percent and 21.45 percent, respectively.

With 50 percent of the ballots counted, Samopomich (Self-Reliance), a pro-European party based in western Ukraine, was third with 11.1 percent.

Poroshenko said late on October 26 that voters had given 'strong and irreversible backing to Ukraine's path to Europe.'

He said the vote demonstrated support for 'political methods' to end the conflict with pro-Russian separatists who hold swaths of populous eastern Ukraine after fighting that has killed more than 3,700 people since April and persists despite a September 5 cease-fire.

He said coalition talks would begin on October 27 and called the People's Front the 'main partner' for his bloc.

Yatsenyuk, a fierce critic of Russia who is popular among Western governments for his support for economic reforms, said a governing coalition would have to be formed 'as quickly as possible.'

'This is to be a very pro-reform and pro-European, smart and even tough coalition,' he said. 'Because the new government, together with the new parliament, is to pass a number of austerity packages, and a number of reforms that are not easy for the people in a short-term perspective.'

Communists Falter

Three other parties were on track to clear the 5 percent barrier and enter the single-chamber Verkhovna Rada, including the Opposition Bloc, which was joined by many members of ousted former President Viktor Yanukovych's defunct Party of Regions.

The Opposition Bloc had 9.8 percent, followed by populist Oleh Lyashko's Radical Party, with 7.4 percent, and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party, with 5.7 percent.

The Communist Party appeared on track to be shut out of the Rada for the first time since Ukraine gained independence in the Soviet collapse of 1991.

The partial results include only voting by party, which is to fill half the parliament seats. The rest will go to winners of races in individual electoral districts.

Poroshenko called the early poll in a bid to set Ukraine on a new path eight months after Yanukovych was ousted following opposition protests he touched off by scrapping plans to tighten ties with the European Union and turning to Russia instead.

Russia responded to Yanukovych's ouster by annexing the Crimea peninsula in March. Kyiv and the West accuse Moscow of also sending troops and arms to support pro-Russian rebellions that erupted in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk.

About 5 million voters in Crimea and in separatist-controlled areas of Luhansk and Donetsk did not take part in the elections.

Poll officials said 15 out of 32 district election commissions in the two provinces did not operate during the vote, meaning that 27 of the 450 seats in parliament will be left vacant.

Leaders of the pro-Russian insurgents in Donetsk and Luhansk regions have said they will hold elections to their so-called 'people's republics' on November 2 to elect separate parliaments.

Kyiv, the United States, and several other countries have said those elections are illegitimate and will not be recognized.

With reporting by Reuters, TASS, AP, and AFP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine-elections- monitors-praise-osce-russia/26659745.html

Copyright (c) 2014. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.