Brussels, 27/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 26 September, Yuri Lukanov, from the watchdog Maidan, expressed his concerns regarding the future general election in Ukraine. He explained that, there have been huge breaches of electoral standards and enough of them to infer that the elections cannot at the moment be considered as fair and free. He emphasised that documents backing up this assertion existed. Elections are due to take place on 28 October.
During a hearing at the European Parliament on the Ukrainian elections, Lukanov highlighted the use of state bureaucracy for propaganda purposes, as well as the use of administrative resources for putting pressure on people paid by the state, such as doctors and teachers. He added that, “this is a system at work, these are not isolated incidents”. He also explained that it was possible that fraud could be committed both by the government and opposition parties.
Lukanov considers that the most serious issue is not the way in which the people vote but the way in which the votes are counted because most of the fraud takes place in the vote count. He informed MEPs taking part in the election observers mission that, “the West is important. It can influence the way in which votes are counted. If you can intervene when the votes are counted, they will be influenced by you. It is important to observe this procedure according to the rule of law”.
Earlier on, EUROPE met election candidate, Vladimir Tsibulko, who denied accusations of fraud and underlined the existence of electoral law and the fact that there were cameras in the voting stations. He also explained that European and Russian observers would be present and that President Viktor Yanukovych would do everything he could to prevent fraud and avoid having problems with Russia and the EU, which will be following the election results closely. (CG/trans/fl)