Democratic elections.  On the day Ukraine's presidential election campaign is officially launched I'm pleased that a case brought by one political party against another political party's advertising is no longer hanging over proceedings.  The party bringing the case dropped it a couple of weeks ago.  My pleasure at this fact isn't because I have any view on the substance of the case, or on the campaign advertising which it was designed to ban.  Nor do I have any problem with legislation which, for example, prohibits the use of obscenities or certain types of images in advertising.  But there's no doubt that when one political party starts trying to use the courts to outlaw advertising by another political party, there's always a risk it may not look very democratic.

There's another piece of good news, too.  This is that the Ukrainian authorities have demonstrated their confidence in the fairness of the forthcoming presidential elections by inviting the OSCE to send a comprehensive set of observers, coordinated by the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (an excellent outfit rejoicing in the rather dismayed-sounding acronym of ODIHR), to come to Ukraine to observe the elections.  This is admirable: while some people might argue that Ukraine is a grown-up country which doesn't need outsiders telling it how to run an election, there seems to me no down-side in inviting the experts of the OSCE to come and give an independent verdict.  On the contrary: having comprehensive monitoring by independent observers will help reduce the risk of disputes about the eventual outcome.  It follows that between now and the final phase of the elections this embassy and others who support the continued development of a democratic and stable Ukraine will be watching closely how the campaigns are run.  I hope that this will be a simple task, with few allegations of irregularities to consider and with everyone concerned agreeing unanimously that things have been run on a 100% legitimate and democratic basis.  Whatever happens, as of today the Ukrainian elections exhibit one notable sign of a genuine democracy.  That is that no one knows who will be the country's next President.