Lutsenko calls for recognition of newly elected parliament, despite incompliance of elections with democratic standards

Former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, who is serving a prison term in the Mena penal facility, has called for the recognition of the results of the parliamentary elections in Ukraine, despite the undemocratic election campaign and fraud.

"At a meeting with the vice-president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the upcoming meeting with U.S. and EU ambassadors, I have called for, and will call for the recognition of these elections, while mentioning their incompliance with European democratic standards," he said in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper, which was published on Friday.

"After the politically motivated imprisonment of [former Prime Minister] Yulia Tymoshenko, the electoral process in Ukraine cannot be called competitive... After the Party of Regions seized 90% of the seats in election commissions across the country the elections ceased to be transparent. Large-scale bribery and coercion of voters... puts an end to the democratic nature of the campaign. All of this is true. But I'm still calling for the recognition of the newly elected parliament," Lutsenko said.

"It is better to have this, largely falsified Verkhovna Rada and turn it into a platform for democratic forces in 2015, than give up this ugly offspring of the puppeteers of the Party of Regions and thus complete the construction of an authoritarian 'Mezhyhiria archipelago,' which will finally spit on [Ukraine's] commitments to the European Union. Everyone understands quite well what the next election will be like without the umbrella of European monitoring," he said.

When asked whether he considered the elections to be rigged, Lutsenko said: "The significant difference in the results of exit polls and vote count protocols sent to the CEC shows the distortion of the will of the voters... This is a siren, rather than a signal of fraud."

He said that the number of single-seat candidates from the Party of Regions who won the elections had increased thanks to "the bribery of voters and then members of commissions."

The parliamentary elections in Ukraine were held on October 28. The OSCE and the U.S. Department of State called it a step backwards in the development of democracy. Former Ukrainian Prime Minister and Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko went on a hunger strike on October 29, demanding an objective assessment of the elections by international observers and the CEC.