“The way of Ukraine towards democratic developments turned out to be vain; our country came back to 2004. “

According to Stretovych, many violations took place during the local elections, “but we cannot deny the fact that they are recognized.” The election campaign was far from fair according to Stretovych. He mentions problems like administrative recourse, black campaign, threats to candidates, pressure from the candidates of the Party of Regions, and denial of registration of candidates from other parties. The main failure though, is the electoral law that was adopted three months before the elections, which clearly benefited the ruling party.

“We must stop the practice to adopt new electoral laws before each election. It does not improve the development of our country. Unfortunately the results of this elections will be based on this fact,” explained Volodymyr Stretovych.

The Christian democrat regrets that these elections turned out to be a step back in the democratic development of Ukraine. All attempts to guarantee a fair and transparent voting and vote-counting process failed. “Besides the irregularities during the elections campaign there is one important question now : what will the Party of Regions and its representatives do? What kind of country will they build and how will they use the amount of power?” The MP hopes that the ruling party will stop the building of a “managed democracy” according to the Russian model and will stop the regress of Ukraine. There is a need for systematic reforms in order to ensure that the gained powers will be used to improve the life of ordinary people, solving their problems, protecting their rights and freedoms. It is also necessary in order to restore the credibility of the government.

During recent elections Ukrainians demonstrated complete distrust of the state. In young democracies each new election should demonstrate more and more trust of people to the state authorities. In Ukraine there is a paradox when only 20-30 % of the citizens participated in the elections. In the former electoral law there was a norm that at least 50% of the population to vote to make the outcome officially recognized. This regulation is taken away. In every city and village the majority of Ukrainians demonstrated complete distrust of the ruling party (the Party of Regions) which resulted in this low turnout.

“The election campaign shows that Ukrainian politicians need moral and ethical norms, mutual respect and values of justice and solidarity. These values are at the core of Christian-democracy and these values could help Ukraine to develop into a free democratic country. “

The CDU of Ukraine is keen to increase the role of Christian values into Ukrainian politics. The party wants to have an impact on Ukrainian society by engaging in politics based on these values. Many parties in Ukraine do not engage in politics based on any values or ideology, they are merely looking to increase their numbers in order to gain more control over the country.

Stretovych: “Political leaders should be leaders by example for the Ukrainian people, they should lead the country in the right direction, instead of the wrong one. It is clearly that we are not moving in the right direction,I wonder how long Ukrainian society will remain silent...