Today, in Lviv Oblast, not all the PECs have taken up their duties yet. The main difficulty they have faced is constant rotation of commission members. As a result, PECs can't start their work smoothly, and, due to their ignorance of law, interpret the legislation differently. One of such problematic commissions in Lviv is PEC No.462061 (12 V. Velykyi St). 

At the third meeting of this PEC, which took place on 9 October 2012, members of the PEC, on the initiative of the Chairman of the meeting — Deputy Head of the PEC Andrii Didukh, the decision “to allow all the PEC members, who haven't done that, except the Head of the PEC, to take an oath" was taken by the majority.  The second item on the agenda was the recall and replacement of the Head of the PEC appointed by the district commission. This matter was also supported by 15 members of the precinct commission.

Certainly, such actions of the PEC are contrary to the current legislation. Indeed, placing such matters on the agenda and deciding on them outrage over the Law of Ukraine On Elections of People's Deputies of Ukraine since they are decided with with excess of their powers.  In particular, Article 36 of the Law guarantees each commission member the right, which is also a duty, to take an oath. Only personal refusal of a person to take an oath means refusal of a person to be a commission member.

It is worth emphasising that a member of the DEC, Bohdan Volodymyrovych Oliynyk (nominated by the CPU faction), present at the meeting of the PEC, didn't object to taking such a decision. After the situation was reported to the Head of the DEC No.117 Oleksandr Tiupalov, the latter called the member of the DEC Oliynyk, the Head, the Deputy Head, and the Secretary of the PEC, and explained them the violations.  As a solution, he suggested to call a special meeting of the PEC on 11 October 2012 at 7pm.

At the regular meeting of the DEC on 11 October 2012, the decision of the PEC No.462061 on the matters mentioned was found unlawful, and cancelled. Also, Bohdan Oliynyk and Taras Hrynchyshyn (Secretary of the DEC) were instructed to be present at the PEC meeting and inform the members of the PEC of such decision. Larysa Buksa, a member of the DEC, expressed a wish to be present at the meeting of the precinct commission. However, the meeting of the PEC on 11 October 2012 didn't take place since more than half of the commission members were absent. In the phone “survey” of the members of the respective precinct by the DEC Secretary regarding the notice of the meeting, the majority said they couldn't come because they worked. However, one of the commission members informed that an hour before the planned start of the meeting, the Deputy Head Didukh called him and assured that the meeting wouldn't take place.

Despite that, a regular meeting of the PEC No.462061 did take place on 14 October at 3.35pm.  At this meeting, except Secretary of the DEC Taras Hrynchyshyn, and member of the DEC — curator of this precinct Mr Oliynyk, two more members of the DEC — Oleh Khomenko and Larysa Buksa — were present. At the meeting, all the present took the oath again since when taking the oath at the previous meetings they didn't read it aloud but only signed it.

Among other matters included on the joint agenda (at the beginning of the meeting, there were two agendas — proposed by the Secretary and the Deputy Head), there was the transfer of property from the Deputy Head to the Head of the PEC. However, Mr Didukh refused to vote on the inclusion of this matter on the agenda arguing that he didn't accept anything on the acceptance and transfer act from the DEC, therefore, he had nothing to transfer. Instead, he asked to put to a vote the question of expressing distrust to the Head of the commission and his dismissal. In these questions, he was constantly consulting the members of the DEC present — Buksa and Khomenko, who thought that such question could be voted on since it wasn't prescribed anywhere that it couldn't be done. After a long discussion and explanation of the authorised persons of the parties, agents of candidates for People's Deputy, observers from parties and non-governmental organisations present at the meeting, the question wasn't put to a vote.

Instead, a problem of handing over he key to the safe and the seal arose. At first, the Deputy said he wouldn't transfer anything since he didn't trust the Head of the commission, and that he had the seal of the commission in a safe at home. It is worth mentioning that the members of the DEC don't consider the absence of the seal in the safe of the PEC a big problem; they consider it “human factor”. Later, the key was handed over, and it was agreed that the seal would be transferred the next day in the office of the DEC at the presence of its Head. However, to what documents the seal has been affixed to until now is unknown.

Additional information

Andrii Stepanovych Didukh, born in 1978, as of the creation of the PEC (as of 22 September 2012) was on the lists of commission members from the nominator the faction of the Party of Regions. However, in the officially published lists of the members of the PEC (newspaper Ratusha of 2 October 2012 No.38 (1602), special issue), he was appointed Deputy Head of the commission from the Party of Free Democrats.

Oleh Leonodivych Khomenko, member of the DEC (nominator Rus Bloc Party) — Head of Zaliznychnyi Raion Organisation of the Party of Regions in Lviv.

Larysa Viktorivna Buksa, member of the DEC (nominator — political party Rus Unity) — Head of Primary Organisation No.38 of Zaliznychnyi Raion of the Party of Regions in Lviv.

Nataliya Radysh,

Long-term Observer of the Civil Network OPORA in district No.117

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.  
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