Run-off vote in Ukraine an impressive display of a democratic election, says international election observation mission

16:30

The run-off vote in Ukraine has become an impressive display of democratic elections, the International Election Observation Mission has stated.

"The second round of the presidential election in Ukraine confirmed the assessment of the first round that most OSCE and Council of Europe commitments were met. This election consolidated the progress achieved since 2004," reads a statement of preliminary findings and conclusions on the second round of the presidential election in Ukraine, which was made available to Interfax-Ukraine.

The document says that most problems that arose during the election were linked to the flawed legal framework and mutual accusations of fraud.

"The campaign atmosphere was negatively affected by mutual accusations of fraud, last minute amendments to the election law and attempts to remove the heads of key institutions for partisan purposes," international observers said.

Analyzing the work of the Central Election Commission, the mission assessed it as effective and mainly unbiased.

Notwithstanding the rising political tension, the Central Election Commission continued to operate mostly in a non-partisan manner, and was efficient in organizing the second round. However, it did not clarify the application of important aspects of the law. Some of its actions again lacked transparency. The media provided voters with an opportunity to make an informed choice," reads the statement.

The report also points to the improvement of the quality of voter lists.

"Overall, the quality of the voter lists has improved, but in order to eliminate remaining inaccuracies, further efforts are necessary. Specifically, voters added to the lists in polling stations should be included in the state voter register before the next election," reads the document.

At the same time, international observers expressed concern over the rising pressure on courts in the last few days of the election campaign.

"Disturbingly, in the last few days of the campaign, pressure was exerted on the judiciary, when the prosecutor started to question the judges who ruled on election related cases," reads the statement.

"The election day was orderly and calm. Our observers assessed the voting, counting and tabulation overwhelmingly positively. The transparency was greatly enhanced by the large presence of observers," international observers said.

The International Election Observation Mission includes the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, NATO Parliamentary Assembly, MEPs, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

08.02.2010