Viktor Baloha, head of President Victor Yushchenko’s secretariat, has reprimanded Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych’s Regions Party for saying its opponents plan to rig next week’s parliamentary election, according to the President`s press-office. He said on Monday such statements were a “risky game.”
Baloha described the party’s groundless accusations as “fantasies of their authors” and said they were a "means of rude pressure" on the country’s election commissions and other participants of the campaign. He added that these blames were meant to make the public believe the election would be falsified and hence illegal.
He said the president and his secretariat would not try to prove the opposite. “I assure you this will never happen because neither the president nor his secretariat have no reasons to justify themselves,” he said, recommending those who make such insinuations go to court. “However, no queues of the Regions Party members are seen in courts now.”
Baloha said the Regions Party had rigged the 2004 presidential election and added that next week’s poll results “will not be reviewed no matter how much certain political forces which are not confident in their popularity want this.”
He said Yushchenko’s secretariat hoped the Central Election Commission would be scrupulous and professional and ensure that the election is honest. He added all such insinuations and accusations would be impossible if it counted the ballots fast and without mistakes and published Sunday’s results as soon as possible.
