MINSK, 26 March (BelTA) – It will be quite challenging for the CIS member states to build an objective picture of the presidential election in Ukraine scheduled for 31 March, Viktor Guminsky, First Deputy Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee, CIS First Deputy Executive Secretary, told reporters before the joint meeting of the CIS Council of Permanent Plenipotentiaries and the Commission on Economic Affairs at the CIS Economic Council held via a videoconference link between the CIS Executive Committee in Minsk and its office in Moscow on 26 March, BelTA has learned.
“Ukraine has not officially withdrawn from the CIS. Taking into consideration that there will be no CIS observers at the election, it will be hard for the CIS member states to assess the transparency of the election and the reliability of voting results. We will only have the information that we will get from foreign sources, which is not right,” Viktor Guminsky said.
He expressed his regret over Ukraine's decision to withdraw from the agreement on observation at elections and national referendums in the CIS states passed in 2015. However, this is a decision of a sovereign state. “Of course, this cannot have a positive impact on the study of the election situation in the country, people's attitudes to ongoing policies and on exchange of best practices,” Viktor Guminsky said.
