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UNIAN news agency, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian, 26 Apr 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Monday, April 26, 2004
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KIEV - US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Steven Pifer told Ukrainian
parliament speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn during a meeting in Kiev that he doubted
the validity of the result of the mayoral election in [the Transcarpathian
Region city of] Mukacheve.
He said: "We think that it is more than doubtful that the results that were
announced matched the way people voted." He said that the United States
welcomes the fact that President Leonid Kuchma has ordered a detailed
investigation of the Mukacheve situation to be conducted. Pifer expressed
the hope that "this investigation will produce a just and objective picture
of what happened" and that the appropriate conclusions would be drawn.
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Foreground: Stephen Pifer, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, currently Assistant Deputy Secretary of State. Seated behind the Ambassador is The Washington Group (TWG) president, attorney Ihor Kotlarchuk
Photo by Natalie Gawdiak
(Click on image to enlarge it)
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Lytvyn said that "it is a matter of fundamental importance [for the Supreme
Council] to give an objective assessment" of the Mukacheve events so as to
prevent anything like it recurring. He expressed the hope that the Mukacheve
situation would "provide a lesson".
Lytvyn said that this lesson "will not be complete without measures being
taken over the violations that are revealed". He did not rule out that after
10 May parliament would again hear reports from the heads of law enforcement
agencies about the measures taken over the violations.
[A candidate from the propresidential United Social Democratic Party of
Ukraine was declared the winner of the 18 April election, but the opposition
claimed that massive vote rigging had occurred to deprive its candidate of a
landslide victory. During a parliamentary hearing on 21 April, Interior
Minister Mykola Bilokon and Prosecutor-General Henadiy Vasylyev pledged to
investigate all violations registered during the election.]
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