Azarov admits there are problems with vote counting

Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov met with representatives of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission headed by Ambassador Audrey Glover, during which the parties discussed the election campaign in Ukraine, ForUm learned from the Cabinet’s press office.

Ukrainian Prime Minister pointed out that elections went smoothly on 90% territory of Ukraine, with no violations of the law: there were no problems with the election campaign, the voting, the counting process. Ukraine created all the conditions for democratic, fair, transparent elections.

However, Azarov paid attention of the OSCE / ODIHR observers to the fact that problem situations arising in individual constituencies with the vote counting have not been solved yet.

 

The Prime Minister said that neither the government nor the ruling political force has relation to such situations. "I emphasize that neither the Party of Regions, nor the Government are involved in these situations as the Party of Regions has lost to its political opponents in all Kyiv constituencies. Thus the administrative resource was not used. Moreover, the opposition had much greater opportunities for access to the media and campaigning than the authorities did," Azarov said.

The Prime Minister said that the conflicts in the selected districts should be settled exclusively within the law. "I hope that today or tomorrow the procedure of vote counting will be finally completed," the head of the government said.

The Prime Minister also informed observers that Ukraine acquainted with the interim OSCE / ODIHR report on the elections. He noted there are certain observations, which Ukraine still needs to work on. Along with this, according to Azarov, who has 20-year experience in the electoral process in Ukraine, the elections 2012 were the best in the history of independent Ukraine: "These elections has been the best in the history of our independent country. The minimum number of violations was fixed during these elections. Elections 2012 are a very important step towards transparency, democracy and fairness". This, Azarov added, emphasizes the fact that Ukraine is really developing.

The Prime Minister stressed that Ukraine looks forward to the OSCE / ODIHR final report to be published in about 8 weeks. Conclusions of experts about conduct of democratic elections are extremely important to the improvement of democracy in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, he said, the government is very seriously working on the comments made already: "Certainly, we will work very serious on your comments, because you are experts in the electoral process, and we trust you," Azarov said.

The head of the mission expressed the wish and consent to continue cooperation with Ukraine to improve democratic electoral processes. The Prime Minister thanked Glover and assured that our government will continue to cooperate with the OSCE and other democratic institutions.