Former PACE President Cavusoglu Says European Colleagues Should Not Pre-Judge Parliamentary Elections in Ukraine

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• Publié par: ukraine-observer
• Nombre de lectures: 13
• Langue: English

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Former PACE President Cavusoglu Says European Colleagues Should Not Pre-Judge Parliamentary Elections in Ukraine

PR Newswire KYIV, Ukraine, October 1, 2012

KYIV, Ukraine,October 1, 2012/PRNewswire/ -- Mevlut Cavusoglu, the former President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council ofEurope(PACE) and a member of the pre-electoral PACE delegation that visitedUkrainelast month, has urged his European colleagues to evaluate upcoming parliamentary elections inUkraine"on the basis of all elements" and to avoid pre-judging the election before it is held. In an interview withInterfax, Cavusoglu said he was disappointed by remarks made by the head of the PACE pre-electoral delegation, Andreas Gross, noting they were "neither fair nor objective, and diverged substantially from our official and non-partisan PACE statement as agreed and issued inKyivon September 22nd." The comments made by Gross to the weekly Ukrainian paperTyzhden, saw the delegation chief describing the election commission ofUkraineas a "farce" and saying he was "pessimistic" about prospects for a free and fair election.These kinds of remarks could be seen as prematurely pre-judging the parliamentary elections set to be held onOctober 28th, Cavusoglu explained. "I was disappointed to read an interview given by our head of delegation in which he made partisan remarks that tend to pre-judge the outcome of Ukraine'sparliamentary election a month before they are held," Cavusoglu said in a statement to Interfax. "Mr. Gross does not appear in this interview to be an impartial representative of the Council ofEuropeif he makes these statements," the former PACE president added. Cavusoglu, who served from 2010 to 2012 as President of PACE, noted that "the parliamentary elections need to be judged on the basis of all elements affecting the whole process, and not on any individual item." "These new remarks in the interview given by Mr. Gross are a long way away from the fair and balanced statement that we all made when our delegation completed its visit toKyiv," Interfax quoted Cavusoglu as saying. Heading the PACE delegation, Gross issued a statement onSeptember 22nd, saying the forthcoming parliamentary elections inUkraineonOctober 28th would be "a litmus test ofUkraine'scommitment to democratic principles as a step towards further European integration." The PACE delegation also raised concerns about a proposed law to criminalize defamation, and Cavusoglu told Interfax he was pleased to see these concerns had already been addressed. He said that a week after the PACE mission toUkraine, President Viktor Yanukovych criticized the draft legislation and the law was stopped in parliament. This, he told Interfax, "shows thatUkraineand PACE can and do engage constructively."