Probably, most people already feel the election approaching. Candidates for People's Deputy, representatives of party branches, and headquarters employees are fighting persistently, and sometimes even aggressively. Civil servants also don't delay preparations for the election day. Questions of the representatives of the Network OPORA were answered by the Head of the Administration Department for the State Registrar of Voters of Chernihiv Oblast State Administration — Vasyl Bilookyi.
— At what stage is now the work on informing the public on creation of preliminary and revised lists of voters?
— This work began around three month ago. The Departments for State Registrar of Voters have been publishing information in the local media with explanation on checking the presence of a voter in the State Registrar of Voters. When preliminary voter lists will be forwarded directly to precinct election commissions — and this will happen no later than 7 October — they will be posted for public review on stands in the offices of PECs. Moreover, voters will receive personal invitations, which, by the way, as well as the lists this year will be produced by the departments for State Registrar.
— Are the people easy to contact? How frequent are the visits of citizens to the departments for State Registrar of Voters for emending personal details?
— The activity of voters is not that high but it is growing every day. On average, no more than 10 persons call in every day When a notice is published in newspapers, then, of course, the frequency of visits increases.
— What is the number of employees of the Department for the Registrar of Voters, and do this people cope with the amount of work that have fallen on them during the electoral process?
Currently, in raions and towns of the oblast, in the departments for State Registrar of Voters there are 62 employees. That is 2 professionals practically in every raion. The staff is governed by the respective regulation, which clearly states how many people shall work in a department according to the number of voters in this administrative region. The numbers of voters in the raions range from 10K in small raions to 140K in Desnianskyi Raion of the city of Chernihiv; on average, in raions it is from 25K to 30K. Employees of the departments cope with their duties just fine. The only thing is that there will be considerable workload in the departments during the formation and preparation of preliminary and revised lists, and, of course, invitations for voters. However, the legislation clearly determines the terms under which all of this will be done. As required by the law, lists shall be forwarded to the staff of the departments for State Registrar of Voters in the office of the Department to three representatives of a PEC — Head and 2 members.
— How do you personally assess professional qualifications and performance of the DSRV staff?
— Let me tell you that the employees were selected very carefully. Nearly all the employees of the departments are young, professionally trained people. For when these departments were formed, a lot of training in the CEC and regional seminars were held. As this is a new and unique base with no analogues. For a common person, it is very difficult to learn how to use it. Therefore, after going through this whole process of learning, now we don't have many staff changes.
— Have they established cooperation with other bodies authorised to enter regularly update information for the State Registrar of Voters? What are now the results of work on revision of the registrar?
— According to the Law of Ukraine On the State Registrar of Voters, we regularly update the database every month. I.e. the heads of various institutions and departments regularly provide necessary information. For example, bodies of internal affairs provide details of persons who reached the age of 18, acquired or lost citizenship, or changed the place of registration. Juridical authorities report on persons who died or changed personal details (name, surname, or patronymic). Commanders of military units provide information on voters who were reported for duty or left military units. Correctional authorities inform on people who were reported for service or completed their term. And the courts report on persons adjudged incapable. This information is provided to our departments before the 5th of very month. In general, such cooperation is established at a proper level. All information is provided in a timely manner. And the database is updated promptly, according to the law. On average, around 10,000 voter records are processed per month. Within 8 month, we process 67,000 records. You know it's OK when information on a voter is provided correctly, then you simply have to enter him into the registrar. However, if any data on a voter are presented incompletely or with errors they have to be revised. To do that, one should contact the authorities who have provided the information, other authorities, or other departments for the State Registrar. However, cooperation is established, I can't complain about that.
— What are the preventive measures that your institution is planning to take in order to prevent fraud, which has become possible with the introduction of the concept of „voting address“?
— In 2010, the Law of Ukraine On the State Registrar of Voters was presented in the new edition, which contained a number of positive regulations. In particular, the new edition uses a slightly different approach to the concept of „voting address“. Voting address is a place of registration of a person, or a place of residence of a person, according to the Law of Ukraine On Free Choice of Movement and Freedom of Movement. I don't think that it causes any fraud as information about voters is entered into the registrar based on documentary evidence only. If a person changes his voting address and registers according to the Law of Ukraine On Free Choice of Movement and Freedom of Movement, on the grounds of regular update, his voting address will be changed, and this voter will be included in the lists already at the station, which this voting address belongs to.
— But in 2010, there were cases when a person could vote at two stations?
— You know, the registrar of voters was launched into operation only in 2009. Data on voters were entered into the registrar according to lists that were formed by respective working groups. Of course, there was the human factor — there were mistakes as well as twins. However, with time, the registrar has been constantly improved and amended on the basis of documents, and twins have been eliminated. Now, the fact of the number of the amendments after the election bespeaks quality of the registrar. After the local election in 2010, analysis of the information obtained showed that the lists prepared for the voting, and then returned contained 145K amendments, which amounts to only 0.4%. In Romania, during the election, this figure made 10%.
— Do the staff use new media since this is one of the cheapest ways of informing the public on clarification of personal details in the departments of your institution?
— The thing is that the departments have certain protection of the database. All computer equipment used by our staff is properly protected. On the computers, only the database of the State Registrar of Voters and some licensed supporting software are installed; the staff have no access to the internet. Every act of the department staff is controlled — at what time a person switched a computer on, how many amendments he entered, at what time he switched it off, what a person did during the day... So our staff can't use the Internet. All the explanations and informational materials are published in the local printed media. However, due to scarce funding from government authorities, of course, these publications are not enough.
— How accessible and convenient are the offices and working hours of the departments , in your opinion?
— Some people get the impression that if the windows are grated the departments for registrar are inaccessible for common voters. I have already pointed out that since this office has limited access, there are, of course, certain requirements to such offices, such as grates, if an office is located on the ground floor, or special barriers and code locks. Annually, teh verification of compliance with these requirements is carried out, which, by the way, are prescribed by the regulation of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, and, basically, all the departments comply with them. All but one — air conditioning. Because of our funding, it is rather problematic to meet this requirement. Apart from that, all the departments meet the requirements of the legislation in force.
— Will the Departments for Registrar of Voters of Chernihiv Oblast forward the preliminary voter list to the PECs on time, by 7 October?
— By 7 October, as required by the law, everything will be forwarded, I hope. A delay may occur if equipment fails. In such cases, the CEC and the company contracted for service come to the rescue. And mending takes time. There were times when the equipment wasn't working for a week or two. I hope there will be no such force majeure, and we will manage to forward all the lists to precinct election commissions on time.
Reference:
Civic monitoring conducted by OPORA - is a type of network activity, aimed at impartial assessment of the preparation and conduct of elections, as well as preventing violations through comprehensive civic action. Professional monitoring at all stages of the election process indirectly influences the quality of the campaign. The public opinion, both foreign and domestic is formed through gathering and spreading of information among the target audience.
From a strategic perspective public monitoring of elections focuses upon improving the system and certain procedures.
In 2012, during Parliamentary elections in Ukraine OPORA is carrying out a large-scale campaign of long- and short term observation, organizing a statistical vote-count by the results of voting with the proportional component of the electoral system on a basis of representative selection, will provide 100% coverage of polling stations by observers in separate single-mandate majoritarian districts. OPORA observers will work in all 225 electoral districts, and 3,500 activists will join them on the voting day. Organization will use the latest means of spreading information on observation results, including infographics and interactive maps.