The President of the European People’s Party (EPP),Wilfried Martens, made the following statement after the publication of the near-final results from Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Ukraine:

“The conduct of the elections in Ukraine comes as no surprise for the international community. For the past two and a half years, President Yanukovich and his government have been very meticulous in unraveling the country’s hard-fought democratic gains from the Orange revolution: organising politically motivated trials in order to jail key opposition leaders like Yulia Tymoshenko, shutting out the independent press, and now, conducting elections in an untransparent and flawed manner,” Martens stated.

“Unlike the European Socialists – who made the baffling claim that the election was ‘legitimate and orderly’ – the statements made by the observation missions of the European Parliament, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, and the N

ATO Parlimentary Assembly all point to the ‘unfair play’ of the country’s authorities during these elections, which benefited the governing parties (Party of Regions and Communist Party) and handicapped the opposition. Sadly, the distorted outcome of these elections will only strengthen the hand of President Yanukovich who wants to derail Ukraine from its path to democracy, the rule of law, and Euro-Atlantic integration,” the EPP President underlined.

“On the other hand, if the new Regions’ government will be sincere in pursuing Ukraine’s European integration, it must first release all political prisoners and abandon authoritarian practices. But under the current circumstances, the EU-Ukraine association agreement cannot and will not be ratified. In the meantime, the EPP will fully support the main opposition parties Baktivschina and UDAR and their fight against creeping authoritarianism,” Martens added.

According to official results, Baktivschina (EPP member) scored 24,6% and UDAR (EPP applicant member) 13,5%.