The parliamentary elections in Ukraine were democratic, and the newly elected Verkhovna Rada is legitimate, Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn has said.

"The parliamentary elections in Ukraine, according to observers, election participants and voters in general, were held at an acceptable democratic and institutional level, with the broad participation of Ukrainian and international observers," he said in St. Petersburg on Thursday at a meeting of the Council of the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, according to a statement posted on the parliament's Web site.

Lytvyn said that despite there being a number of violations and critical remarks, as are observed in any election, their nature "gives no grounds not to declare the elected composition of the Verkhovna Rada fully legitimate."

He noted that although the estimates of official delegations from the OSCE, PACE and NATO are critical, they do not involve a direct rejection of the election results.