Ukrainian election insufficiently transparent - OSCE observers

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has called the Ukrainian parliamentary election insufficiently transparent and said "democratic progress appeared to have reversed in Ukraine."

The OSCE said the election was characterized by "the lack of a level playing field, caused primarily by the abuse of administrative resources, lack of transparency of campaign and party financing, and lack of balanced media coverage." Interfax-Ukraine has obtained a report from the OSCE election monitoring mission.

The mission gave a press conference in Kyiv on Monday. It is a joint mission of the OSCE/ODHIR, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the European Parliament and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

The mission has more than 800 members from 42 countries, among them 625 long-term and short-term observers of the OSCE/ODHIR, 100 parliamentarians and employees of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, 40 PACE observers, 19 NATO Parliamentary Assembly observers and 36 European Parliament observers.