The absence of serious debates between presidential candidates is a sign of disrespect for the voters. EU ambassador Hugh Mingarelli and chief German diplomat in Ukraine Ernst Reichel said this at the briefing of ENEMO, the European Network for Election Monitoring Organizations. Hromadske.org quoted the officials as saying.
'It's a pity that there are no serious debates between the candidates. It means disrespect for the voters. People should know and hear things', Mingarelli claimed. He added it was crucial that all candidates recognized the results of the voting in the second round.
'We had doubts that there could be several candidates who would protest. But that didn't happen', Mingarelli said. He also stressed that the issues of media regulation and the honest nature of the given election campaign are still disputed.
German ambassador Ernst Reichel added that Europe showed considerable interest for the Ukrainian electoral campaign. 'The debates held at the stadium... that's new', he said.
The debates at the NSC Olimpiysky stadium are supposed to kick off 9 p.m. Friday. It might be the first face-to-face meeting of candidates Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelensky; they never met in person during the entire presidential race.
