European Parliament observer Rebecca
Harms has said that she has no grounds to believe that manipulations
were orchestrated in the presidential election in Ukraine, Germany's international broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported.
She said that the heads of
territorial district commissions monitored the situation and sealed
ballot boxes in line with all rules.
"What I've observed is most
likely the evidence of fair and transparent elections. I have nothing
to complain of. The vote was prepared very nicely here in Kyiv," Harms
said.
She also said that there had been no complaints from other European Parliament observers.
"If all international observers
confirm that the election was democratic, then all candidates should
recognize the results so that the second round is held in line with the
rules of the game," Harms said.
"Ukraine and its citizens have got closer to the West and the EU over the last five years," she said.
International monitors headed by the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe also said that Ukraine's presidential election on
Sunday was of high quality and showed significant progress on
previous polls there, .
But the law on electoral procedure needed to be clarified
and a last-minute court ruling on home-voting, plus
"unsubstantiated" accusations of large-scale fraud by
politicians, had shaken public confidence, a statement said.
Apart from the OSCE itself, the team of observers included
monitors from the European Parliament, NATO parliamentary
assembly and the Council of Europe.
"Ukraine has proven that it can hold a clean election, even
under an incomplete and unclear election law, confirming the
desire of the Ukrainian people to freely choose their
leaders," Matyas Eorsi, head of the delegation of the Council of
Europe's Parliamentary Assembly said.
"However, a major challenge ahead for Ukraine's politicians
is to play by the rules rather than with the rules," he said.
