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(Washington) - The United States
Helsinki Commission will hold a briefing to examine the
pre-election conditions in
Ukraine
ahead of the country's presidential election run-off set for
November 21.
Ukraine's
Presidential Election: The Turning Point?
Tuesday, November 16,
2004
10:00
AM -
12:00
Noon
2255
Rayburn
House
Office Building
Former U.S. Rep. Jim
Slattery, member of the Association of Former
Members of
Congress/U.S.-Ukraine Foundation
election monitoring delegation to Ukraine.
Ambassador Nelson
Ledsky, Senior Associate and Regional
Director, Eurasia Programs,
National Democratic Institute for
International Affairs.
Taras
Kuzio, visiting professor at the Elliott
School of International Affairs, George
Washington University and
author of numerous articles about the Ukrainian
elections.
Ukraine's presidential
election is the most important event in Ukraine since independence
was achieved in 1991. The contest, pitting democratic
opposition leader Victor Yushchenko against Prime Minister Victor
Yanukovich in a November 21 run-off, represents a potential
turning point for Ukraine.
The
OSCE Election Observation Mission, with more than 600
international observers, concluded that the October 31 first
round, in which no candidate garnered the required majority, did
not meet a considerable number of OSCE standards for democratic
elections, representing a step backward from the 2002
elections. Both the election campaign and vote were
seriously flawed.
Despite the profound lack of an even
playing field and numerous abuses and blatant violations which
disadvantaged Mr. Yushchenko and his campaign, the Central
Election Commission today announced him the winner of the first
round with 39.87 percent of the vote against Mr. Yanukovich's
39.32 percent.
The
November 21 runoff will determine whether
Ukraine
fulfills its quest for democracy and integration into the
Euro-Atlantic community or maintains its corrupt status-quo
drifting increasingly toward an authoritarian system along the
Eurasian model.
An un-official transcript
will be available on the Helsinki Commission's web site at
http://www.csce.gov
within 24 hours of the briefing.
The United States Helsinki
Commission, an independent federal agency, by law monitors and
encourages progress in implementing provisions of the Helsinki
Accords. The Commission, created in 1976, is composed of nine
Senators, nine Representatives and one official each from the
Departments of State, Defense and Commerce.
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