Letters to the editor

Observing the Ukraine elections

As former members of Congress and former members of the European Parliament who have spent considerable time in Ukraine as official observers of the election process, we write with concern and alarm in response to the article “Ukraine vote panned, praised,” (World, Nov. 2).

We commend The Washington Times for covering, what we believe, to be the most important, after the United States, election in 2004. However, we disagree with a report of another delegation — which was not affiliated with our group of former members — that states that the election met international standards for fairness and transparency.

We were participants in four nonpartisan delegations sent since July 2004 to various regions in Ukraine to monitor and report on the presidential election campaign. The monitoring program is hosted by the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation and the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress and were funded by the United States Agency for International Development.

Delegations are not linked to any campaign, candidate or party. As officially registered election observers, our sole mission is to promote free, fair and transparent elections in Ukraine.

Based on our visits to Ukraine, we have serious concerns about the fairness and transparency of the election process, under way since July 4. In total, we visited 34 towns in nine oblasts in Ukraine, where we met local citizens, nongovernment organization representatives, local media outlets, political party representatives and local election officials.

Violations, media oppression and administrative abuses were repeatedly reported across the oblasts visited. Everywhere we heard citizens voice their concerns that their votes will not be counted correctly and that authorities have already determined who will win. We also heard reports that opposition candidates are harassed by the authorities and that citizens are threatened with loss of jobs unless they sign petitions for Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. The list of violations goes on and on.

Few would dispute that there is not a fully free and independent press in Ukraine. The national and local media is generally owned and controlled by the government and by oligarchs who support the regime in Kiev.

Independent media studies have shown the media to be heavily biased toward the ruling regime candidate. Setting aside the administrative abuses, the overwhelming presence of government-controlled media brings into question how free and fair the election can and will be.

Our concerns have been joined by other delegations hosted by respected organizations: the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, International Republican Institute, Council of Europe, and the European Network of Electoral Monitoring Organizations, a group comprised of civic groups from 16 countries in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

As a matter of fact, all delegations that we are aware of, except those sponsored by organizations tied to the ruling politicians in Kiev or to Moscow, have stated that the election, including the campaign period, was well below international standards and a significant “step back” from democracy.

The preponderance of evidence pointing to the absence of a free and fair election is huge. We are therefore very concerned — and alarmed — that a group of former members of Congress have called the election free and fair. We cannot imagine how any observer can come to that overall conclusion based on watching ballots cast at a few polling stations on election day.

The problem with this is that it fails to appreciate the distortions that a managed press and patterns of illegality, harassment and intimidation of voters have entered into the democratic election equation.

We believe that the presidential election now under way will determine the course of the country for the next decade or more. It is essential that the presidential election be free, fair and transparent, giving legitimacy to whomever is elected as the new president of Ukraine.

If the new president, whoever that might be, is elected in an election failing to meet international standards for fairness and transparency, he will be isolated from the community of democracies, which are so critical to Ukraine’s economic and political well-being.

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