President Stands for Fair Elections And So Do Candidates
President Leonid Kuchma has sent a letter to Speaker Ivan Pliushch, promising to do his best to have the 2002 parliamentary elections held on a fair, open, and transparent basis, in keeping with the laws in force and being monitored by the public and political parties, Interfax Ukraine was told by the Presidential Administration’s information management and public relations department. In his letter, Mr. Kuchma stressed that he will pay special attention to observance of the law during the elections, so that all candidates and political parties will have equal opportunities, equal access to the media, and be protected from local executive pressure.
He further notes that the newly enacted parliamentary elections law “sufficiently reflects the democratic traditions and norms of the European electoral system, guarantees and mechanisms of the citizen’s right to freely elect and be elected to bodies of state power.”
The head of state urges Verkhovna Rada and all people’s deputies to make every effort to implement the elections law on the broadest possible scope and secure “strict observance of all its clauses.” He emphasizes that “Ukraine’s prestige and standing in the international community depend on the democratic elections, campaigners’ conduct, and respect for the law and for each other.”
Even before the president’s letter, the SDPU(o) came out with the initiative of keeping the elections transparent and fair, proposing the formation of a public council under the motto of Fair Elections. The constituent declaration reads that the council “must make the elections open and transparent as much as possible.” The council membership might include representatives of parties and blocs, candidate people’s deputies from majoritarian constituencies, media people, representatives of the general public, and foreign observers, in a word, everyone supporting the idea that “the result of this lengthy and complicated political process must be the election of the worthiest candidates.” The council will reach its goal, using “all legally permissible means, collecting information reflecting the nomination of candidates, parties, blocs, collection of signatures, campaigning, casting ballots, and counting the votes. Special attention will be paid to breaches of the elections law, using the administrative resource, dirty electoral technologies, and turnout falsification.” The council’s key objective, as seen by the organizers, is “bringing all falsehood out into the open if failing to stop it during the election campaign, and reminding one and all of the possible consequences of such transgressions if failing to prevent them, so there will be an opportunity to start a dialogue.”
(See also “Game of Uncertainty” on p. CLOSEUP)
