OSCE observers file complaint of election law violation in Ukraine (03/17/02)

OSCE observers file complaint of election law violation in Ukraine

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Official election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) filed a complaint of a breach of election law with Ukraine's Central Election Commission on March 11, charging the government's main television network, UT-1, with limiting political advertising on its airwaves during the campaign period to a single political organization.

The action came a little more than two weeks prior to elections to Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada, with the run-up entering the home stretch and polls showing that support for Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine election bloc among voters is continuing to increase.

CEC Chairman Mykhailo Riabets said the complaint filed by the OSCE did not specify the political organization, except to state that "only one bloc" has had access to airtime.

OSCE observers made the charges the day Adrian Severin, the president of its Parliamentary Assembly, arrived in Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian officials, leading candidates and political leaders and get a first-hand look at the election process.

During a press conference on the final day of his three-day visit, Mr. Severin avoided commenting on the specifics of the complaint. He did, however, acknowledge that the OSCE had heard serious allegations and had legitimate concerns about whether the March 31 elections to Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada would be free and fair.

Mr. Severin, a Romanian who said in Kyiv that he has Ukrainian roots, expressed concern over mistrust in the election process and the large degree of skepticism voiced by some candidates as to whether the elections would be truly free and fair.

"We are urging all those involved in the elections to assure a balanced exposure to the media for all candidates," said Mr. Severin. "We also think that one should refrain from using administrative resources in this campaign in favor of one or another candidate."

Mr. Severin said the OSCE was calling for transparency in the counting process as well and had asked President Kuchma to assure that the official protocols containing the vote counts would be published in all cities and villages.

He explained that what is needed is a move away from political confrontation and towards political dialogue in the election process. However, he emphasized that dialogue includes the right to disagree, which he said is an essential element of democracy.

"There can be no strong government without a strong opposition. There can be no strong democracy without a strong opposition," said Mr. Severin.

While the CEC head and the president of the OSCE were unwilling to name the political bloc addressed in the complaint, it was obvious after even a cursory viewing of the channel that the reference was to the For a United Ukraine election bloc, a political coalition of several parties close to President Leonid Kuchma that is chaired by the president's chief of staff, Volodymyr Lytvyn.

Several politicians have already accused the bloc of manipulating government resources to give it more public exposure while working to stifle the public relations efforts of its competitors, including blocking access to local government channels and refusing permission to utilize government buildings and meeting halls for campaign meetings.

Most recently Viktor Yushchenko alleged that government workers in the port town of Mariupol, located in the Donetske Oblast, had turned off the lights to the hall in which he was holding a large rally, forcing the meeting to proceed in candlelight.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs said on March 11 that it had a total of 148 reports of violations of the election law from various candidates - most of them minor infractions. Valerii Varenko, state secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, said 37 criminal investigations were under way in response to the various allegations.

Meanwhile, Stepan Havrysh, second vice-chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, sounded a dire warning the same day when he said that it is "absolutely possible" that election returns could be rigged on March 31 with the use of voters lists that included the names of the recently deceased.

OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Severin, who said that his organization would withhold judgment on elections in Ukraine until after the vote count was completed, nonetheless emphasized that free, fair and transparent elections - which he underscored include equal opportunities for all the candidates - would do much in helping to consolidate the rifts in Ukrainian society and would be a major stride towards European integration for the country.

The OSCE leader also rebutted accusations by pro-leftist political forces in Ukraine made earlier in the campaign season that international observers from the West are tools of interference in Ukraine's internal processes.

Mr. Severin emphasized that the OSCE was invited into the country by the Ukrainian government and that its presence in Ukraine does not imply the country is guilty of anything.

"We are not policemen of democracy," explained Mr. Severin. "We are here as partners."

Mr. Severin explained that Ukrainians must remember they willingly entered the OSCE as part of the country's aspiration to move closer to Europe. He called the 55-member organization "a community of values" and a "community of commitments."

The OSCE observer team will be the largest single group of the more than 500 observers representing dozens of international organizations that have been invited to watch how the parliamentary elections take place in Ukraine. The OSCE team includes up to 400 short-term observers who will begin their work in the last days before elections and 36 long-term observers who are already in place.

Ukraine's CEC has already registered a total of 220 foreign observers, which includes representatives of most of the CIS countries and all of the countries neighboring Ukraine. Among the observers from the United States who are already working here are representatives of the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems.

The Ukrainian World Congress and the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, two leading organizations from the Ukrainian diaspora, also have observers on hand.

As it has in past elections, the Committee of Voters of Ukraine will conduct its own domestic election day monitoring with the support of 24,000 trained observers in all the regions of Ukraine. The respected civic group will also train 4,000 members of various Ukrainian political parties to be observers.

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