The FINANCIAL -- The observation mission of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress assesses that the presidential election run-off of February 7 was held in compliance with international standards of free and honest elections.

Ukrainian News learned this from a preliminary report of the observation mission.

At the same time, the observation mission registered some drawbacks during the presidential election run-off.

In particular, the observers believe Ukrainian non-government organizations should be granted a right to observe the elections and provide the transparency of the voting process.

Also, the observers register excessive party principle in the functioning of the election commissions.

In the opinion of the observation mission, specially trained officials should organize the elections.

The observation mission also believes that the campaigning budgets of the presidential candidates were excessive. The observation mission urges Ukraine to restrict campaigning budgets of presidential candidates in legislation.

The observation mission notes that members of election commissions at all polling stations visited by the observers did their utmost to facilitate honest and transparent elections.

"We did not see systematic irregularities or mass vote rigging," said Bogdan Onischuk, the head of the observation mission, at a press conference.

The observation mission of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress comprised 115 members at the presidential election run-off on February 7.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Presidential candidate, leader of the Party of Regions Viktor Yanukovych won 48.95% of votes, and presidential candidate, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko received 45.47% of votes, according to results of vote count of 99.97% of protocols from district election commissions.

The turnout was 69.07% in the runoff.

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