Tymoshenko's address to Yanukovych: Four measures should be taken to hold fair elections

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, in her address to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, has set four conditions, which, in her opinion, will help make the upcoming parliamentary elections in the country more democratic.

"I'm demanding that Yanukovych immediately take four urgent measures and hold an extraordinary session of the Verkhovna Rada," reads the address, which was posted on the Web site of the Batkivschyna United Opposition on Thursday.

Tymoshenko said that first and foremost, it was necessary to ensure the opening of criminal cases and suspend the participation in the election campaign of all parliamentary candidates running in single-member constituencies who publicly bribed voters using budgetary and illegally received funds and with respect to whom these facts have been proved by observers and NGOs.

The ex-premier also demanded that the president decide to extend the online surveillance of Web cameras installed at polling stations for the entire period of vote counting and the filling of protocols with election results.

"It's unnecessary to take all of our citizens and the entire world as oafs who don't understand why you, Viktor Fedorovych [Yanukovych], decided in this crucial moment to turn off the cameras on which almost UAH 1 billion was spent from the budget," reads the report.

In addition, Tymoshenko demanded that the composition of the Central Election Commission be immediately changed and half of its composition be given to opposition parties.

The former prime minister called on the president to ensure that the new composition of the CEC holds a revote on the composition of precinct and district election commissions, separately for each district, preliminarily depriving all fictitious parties of the right to participate in the parliamentary elections. She also demanded that the Svoboda and UDAR parties be given the right to delegate their members to all electoral commissions.

"These are only four steps that can change distrust in these elections to more positive evaluations, both in Ukraine and abroad. If even these modest demands are ignored, only those who put up with the establishment of dictatorship in Ukraine will be able to consider these elections fair and democratic," Tymoshenko said.

The parliamentary elections in Ukraine are scheduled for October 28.