Roundtable on Ukraine Election

By Tammy Lynch

On January 14, the Voice of America held a roundtable discussion dealing with Ukraine's Presidential Election, the first round of which is held this Sunday.

Below are two videos of the event provided by the VOA.

The roundtable was hosted by Myroslava Gongadze and included Damon Wilson of the Atlantic Council, Nadia Diuk of the National Endowment for Democracy and David Kramer of the German Marshall Fund.

Part 1 includes discussion of the improvements in the electoral process since 2004, in particular the increase in choice provided this year. Nadia Diuk suggests, however, that the positions of the two top candidates are very close in many areas, and this has caused some disillusionment among voters.

Part 2 deals with US-Ukraine relations and the need, according to panelists, to broaden support for Ukraine in the US beyond the political elite of the country. Also, what should the priorities of Ukraine's new president be?

As an aside, I appreciated Nadia Diuk's apparent decision not to use any candidate names.

PART 1:

PART 2: