Letters to the editor

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

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.