Ukraine's Foreign Ministry criticizes statement by OSCE election observer

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has criticizes the coordinator of the OSCE short-term election observation mission, Walburga Habsburg Douglas, for her statement about the election to the Verkhovna Rada after she was denied permission to visit jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

"The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry would like to draw attention to the fact that contrary to the statements of by Ms. Douglas, there is no official report of the OSCE about the election. Instead, there is a joint statement containing a preliminary assessment of the election process by five observation missions, including that of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the European Parliament and the OSCE. Ms. Douglas represents only one of the five missions, so does not have any right to make a personal comment on this report, least of all to use it to assess the events that have nothing to do with the elections," director of the Information Policy Department of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Oleh Voloshyn said commenting on the statement by observers of the Parliamentary Assembly OSCE.

According to the ministry's spokesman, Habsburg Douglas' statement suggests that the reason why some of the observers have come to Ukraine is not to monitor the elections but to help a single specific person, "one whose political position appeals to them most.

"For this reason, we resolutely deny the allegation that today's refusal by the Ukrainian State Penitentiary Service to grant representatives of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly permission to visit Tymoshenko in any way supports or overturns the preliminary conclusions on the results of the elections drawn by the five influential international observer missions. Visiting Tymoshenko is an issue that has nothing to do with the elections," Voloshyn said.

The Ukrainian State Penitentiary Service initially permitted Habsburg Douglas to visit Tymoshenko but then took its permission back, pleading the ex-prime minister's current hunger strike and the need for her to be under permanent medical surveillance.

This explanation was brushed aside by Habsburg Douglas, who branded her being denied access to Tymoshenko as a human rights violation and linked it to alleged vote rigging during the elections.