Ukraine elections confirm divisions over Russia, Europe

The party of Ukraine's incumbent President Viktor Yanukovych looks on track to win a majority in the 450-seat State Rada, or parliament, after a hard-fought election campaign that seems to have done little more than confirm the hard, enduring political divisions between the country's Ukrainian-speaking Europe-leaning west, moderate center, and the Russian-speaking and Moscow-oriented east.

But there remain serious differences over whether the campaign and Sunday's voting were free and fair. If doubts linger about the election, Mr. Yanukovych faces a more difficult time signing an economic agreement with the European Union – a key part of the government's aspirations to become less reliant on Russia.

The 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which fielded the largest team of international observers, reported Monday that while election day was calm and peaceful, the campaign was distorted by "a tilted playing field" in favor of Yanukovych's Party of Regions, and that vote-counting was marred by "a lack of transparency."

"Ukrainians deserved better from these elections. The [excessive role of money in] the whole process meant that citizens lost their ownership of the election, as well as their trust in it," said Andreas Gross, the Head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) delegation. "Unfortunately, the great democratic potential of Ukrainian society was not realized in yesterday's vote."

Many Ukrainian observers made similar judgments.

"I've been analyzing election campaigns for 20 years, and I have never seen so many massive falsifications. It's clear that we have a general crisis of our state institutions," says Viktor Nebozhenko, director of Ukrainian Barometer, a Kiev-based political consultancy.

"This election campaign was a cold civil war, with all against all, and the authorities coming out as the only winners," he adds.

1 | 2 | 3

Next