Ukraine: OSCE praised 'transparent' parliamentary election despite 'vote buying'

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W/S Special Co-ordinator and leader of the OSCE short-term observer mission Ilkka Kanerva, Head of the NATO PA delegation Madeleine Moon, Head of the OSCE PA delegation Sereine Mauborgne, Head of the European Parliament delegation David McAllister, and Head of ODIHR election observation mission Albert Jonsson at press conference in Kiev
SOT, Ilkka Kanerva, Special Co-ordinator and leader of the OSCE short-term observer mission: "In the 21st July early parliamentary elections in Ukraine fundamental rights and freedoms were, overall, respected and a campaign was competitive, despite numerous malpractices, particularly in a majority *inaudible*. Generally, the electoral administration was competent and effective, despite short times available to prepare the elections, which within as an opportunity to consolidate reforms and changes in politics, what Ukrainian voters are hoping for."
M/S Press conference *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Ilkka Kanerva, Special Co-ordinator and leader of the OSCE short-term observer mission: "In sharp contrast, the campaign was marked by widespread vote buying, misuse of incompetency and the practice of exploiting all possible legislative loopholes, screen equal of opportunity of contestants. Intervened business and political interest dictate media coverage of elections and allow the misuse of political finance including at the local level."
M/S Press conference *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Ilkka Kanerva, Special Co-ordinator and leader of the OSCE short-term observer mission: "As a consequence of the ongoing armed conflict and other hostilities in the east of the country and illegal annexation of Crimea Peninsula by the Russian Federation, the elections could not be organised in Crimea and certain parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions that are controlled by illegal armed groups."
M/S Press conference *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Ilkka Kanerva, Special Co-ordinator and leader of the OSCE short-term observer mission: "Voting was transparent and well-organised with a high level of adherence to established procedures. Vote count was equally transparent, however, basic reconciliation procedures were often not followed and over one third of observation steps prescribed for completing the protocol were not adherent to. The early stage of tabulation were assessed negatively in one fifth of the district election commissions."
M/S Press conference *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Madeleine Moon, President of NATO Parliamentary Assembly: "We have to acknowledge [that] these elections were far from flawless. Our joint assessment identifies a number of shortcomings, especially when it comes to single-mandate districts."
M/S Press conference *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Sereine Mauborgne, Head of OSCE Parliamentary Assembly delegation: "On election day, we had 61 observers coming from 20 different countries of the OSCE area actively monitoring the electoral process. The biggest part of our delegation [was] deployed in Kiev and its surrounding and the rest in Lviv, Odessa, Kharkiv and Mariupol."
W/S Press conference finishing
SCRIPT
Despite "widespread vote buying" during the Ukrainian parliamentary election campaign, leader of OSCE short-term observer mission pointed out that the voting itself was "transparent," speaking at the press conference in Kiev on Monday.
Ilkka Kanerva stressed out the "sharp contrast" between the election campaign marked by "misuse of incompetency" and the voting, calling it "well-organised with a high level of adherence to established procedures."
Head of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly delegation Madeleine Moon in turn called the election process "far from flawless."
"Our joint assessment identifies a number of shortcomings, especially when it comes to single-mandate districts," added Moon.
Earlier, Ukraine's Central Election Commission (CEC) announced that the party of Ukraine's President Volodymir Zelensky was leading the parliamentary poll with nearly half of the votes counted.
The preliminary parliamentary election was held in Ukraine on Sunday. According to the national exit poll, there were five political parties entering the parliament in total and final election results are expected to be announced within 15 days.