MOSCOW, October 27 (RIA Novosti) – The early parliamentary elections held in Ukraine amid internal crisis are ‘impressive’, but the country still needs to implement reforms, Doris Barnett, head of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA), said Monday.
“We found it very impressive how the Ukraine managed to organize democratic elections in a situation marked by internal disputes,” Barnett said at a press conference held by international observers in Kiev.
Barnett noted that democratic standards were largely upheld during the elections, whose validity cannot be called into question, despite some violations.
The head of the OSCE PA stressed, however, that what Ukraine needs is the “implementation of necessary reforms”.
On Sunday, early parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine. According to the county’s Central Election Commission (CEC), the turnout stood at 52.42 percent.
Currently, with some 55 percent of ballots counted, the People’s Front has garnered 21.6 percent of the popular vote, and the country’s current president’s Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc is close behind with 21.45 percent, according to the CEC. The parties are now considering creating a coalition.
The two leading parties are followed by the Samopomich (Self-Help) party headed by mayor of Lviv Andriy Sadovy with 11.2 percent of the votes, the Opposition Bloc with 9.8 percent, Oleh Lyashko’s nationalist Radical Party with 7.34 percent, and Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party headed by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko with 5.65 percent.
