The leaders of the Christian Churches in the Ukraine have made an appeal for free and fair elections. The appeal was made in view of the approaching presidential elections on 21 November during a press conference attended by Church leaders, including the leaders of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Patriarch Philaret), of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (Cardinal Lubomyr Husar), of the Romanian Catholic Church (Monsignor Markian Trofimjak), of the Pentecostals (Mykhailo Panochko) and of the Evangelicals (Bishop Leonid Padun). The Christian leaders ask citizens not to be discouraged by the fabrications and pressures that effectively impede a free participation in the vote. The runoff in the presidential elections is in fact being overshadowed by a fierce controversy directly involving the head of the government Vuktor Janukovich (who is also one of the two candidates running for President) regarding the alleged misuse of the money allocated by the government itself for the elections. The leaders ask party chiefs to do their best to remove any possibility of error and citizens to personally assist in the counting of the votes, because only a regularly elected candidate may have the moral right to represent the Ukrainian people. “The election of the President of Ukraine is not a result in itself, but represents for Ukrainian society the chance to take an important step along the road of democratic development. Irrespective of whoever becomes next head of our State, only a free and fair election can give him the necessary legitimacy in the eyes of the people. We are convinced that only a regularly elected President can have the right to represent the Ukrainian people”.
