The latter parliamentary elections were extremely rough but, did not go beyond generally accepted standards. This was stressed by the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Volodymyr Lytvyn in his interview to Rada TV Channel on Thursday.
Answering the question regarding ambiguity of international reaction from “absolute denouncement to absolute recognition”, V.Lytvyn noted that he has analyzed the course and results of parliamentary elections of 2002, 2006 and 2007 and they always were held in “a Ukrainian way”.
“At that time election campaigns of 2006 and 2007 were considered to be especially fair, exemplary and democratic,” he said emphasizing that “current election campaign does not differ from the abovementioned previous campaigns. Moreover, we can state that it was more open and transparent. Though, it is understandable that it should be analyzed from the point of view of its legislative support, practical implementation of legislation, as well as the way each participant of the election process acted”.
V.Lytvyn believes that “lots of observers got stuck in a rut due to suggestions that Ukrainian elections will be unfair. Elections were a priory unaccepted, since famous politicians that are incarcerated did not participate in the election process”. Given this, it is extremely hard to say that everything was standard, even from the point of view of psychology or logic, V.Lytvyn noted.
At the same time, V.Lytvyn believes that “we can speak of unacceptability, certain outrage and opposition” in the process of establishment of election results. “It is understandable that vote counting in such a compact country with sufficient technical capabilities cannot take that much time”.
In this context, the Head of the Parliament stated that “election results, without any doubt, should be established in a more short term which should, apparently, be stipulated in the legislation. And we all should demonstrate culture.”