PACE notes concerns with Ukraine election

President Jean-Claude Mignon of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe said the organization is concerned about how smooth Ukraine’s parliamentary election will be on October 28. He said PACE was ready to condemn any irregularities. In other news, PACE plans to adopt a resolution tomorrow that will define the term “political prisoner.” In an interview with Kommersant this morning, Andres Herkel, head of the PACE election observation mission to Ukraine, said Ukraine’s imprisoned former officials would “definitely” meet the definition’s criteria.

Brad Wells: The PACE comments represent concerns from a third major international NGO about the conduct of the election, after the National Democratic Institute and European Network of Election Monitoring. As we noted after the last announcement in mid-September, the Ukrainian government looks unlikely to take corrective action at this point in the campaign. An election deemed to be unfree and unfair by observers would become a major stumbling block for years to come between Ukraine and its partners in the EU and US, and will scuttle Ukraine’s hopes of progress on its European agenda (including a long-awaited Association Agreement and the embedded Deep & Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement) and could result in sanctions for select Ukrainian officials.