This candidate for People's Deputy of the PR in the electoral district No.82 in Zaporizhia Oblast the opponents and some media consider one of the greatest violators of the election law in the region, and a serious rival of a well-known candidate of UDAR Vadym Kryvokhatko who is currently wanted. Despite various insinuations of “friends”, Oleksandr Ivanovych is aiming at victory. Dudka told OPORA why he took a leave at the position of the Deputy Head of the OSA only on 18 September, about some opponents, and fraud.
Now the opposition makes the first steps of unification — the All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland and the UDAR Party of Vitalii Klychko already have agreements, and how will the PR form the majority in the Verkhovna Rada?
Today, it is not that reasonable to talk about unification. When I hold meetings with my voters I always give them examples of other countries where people who come to the parliament or hold high offices, on the very next day start negotiating and working for people who live in their country. I believe this is right. All the oppositional forces are not competitors but opponents, and, of course, they will say that they are better than pro-government candidates. We have to agree to be able to finally solve the problems for people and the country in general, and not to play tug of war and keep moving in a strange direction.
You have been combining the position of Deputy Head of Zaporizhia Oblast State Administration and a candidate for People's Deputy for a long time, and only in the middle of the election campaign took a leave. Why did you work on two positions for so long — due to high workload?
Officially, I took a leave on 18 September. Let me say that I've worked on this position for 11 months. And it is very important for me. And I'll tell you why. Because this job is very demanding. Therefore, for me, all these days, all these 11 months passed under the slogan “Monday-Friday”, and I would also say Saturday. Why hadn't I submitted the application earlier? I wouldn't have even known what date to start with in the application. There were so many issues that required urgent attention since in addition to my functional duties as of Deputy Head of the Oblast State Administration, I have been also assigned to five raions to be responsible for and communicate with the managers on various issues. And it doesn't matter whether it is agribusiness or economics, health care or humanitarian issues. All this time, I was solving the burning problems of raions such as gasification, water supply, unexpected African plague, the price situation, and many others. I couldn't have dropped everything and go! Frankly speaking, being on holiday now, I still put so much effort to resolve all the existing problems in the region. Therefore, I think that in this complicated situation, I've done the right, wise, and — most importantly — honest thing!
You are being accused of the misuse of administrative resource. What is your response to your opponents?
I don't accept any accusations. Unfortunately, nowadays, some journalists for the money are ready to forget not only about journalistic standards but also about conscience. Journalists of newspapers MIH, Zaporizka Pravda, Zaporizka Sich, and Industrial Zaporizhia don't accuse me but those who work only for a financial result. That is why they write various unproven facts about me, which often result in total smear. However, not only journalists but also my opponents tell various nonsense about me. Indeed, for example, the candidate in the electoral district No.82, where I also stand for the election, Oleksandr Dranikov, whom I, frankly, have never met, and don't want to, wrote such things about the celebration of my 50th birthday that I was shocked! Very often he talks about his high rating, which is false. Don't you think that I haven't noticed anything — a lot of material on the work which these journalists and Dranikov conduct is already prepared. However, now I don't want to react in any way to what they're saying and waste my valuable time. Therefore, I think believe do my work without the administrative resource — honestly, tirelessly, and furthermore, I have a lot of examples of my help for people.
Do you think that criminal cases about your opponent from the UDAR Party of Vitalii Klychko, Vadym Kryvokhatko are democratic? He is wanted now, does he have anything to hide from?
Whether he has anything to hide from, competent authorities will decide. I think harbouring is a direct proof of the accusations not being groundless, however, the man hasn't decided yet how to avoid responsibility. As to democracy... Personally I'm not familiar with files of the cases incriminated to Kryvokhatko. This question should be addressed to the prosecution and the judiciary. It is worth mentioning that for our opponents, now it is busy time for speculation — political prosecution, repression, etc. Since today information that as if prosecution of certain candidates was caused by the initiative of the authorities is being actively spread in the media. I consider such statements and suspicions slanderous. As far as I know, some criminal cases had been initiated before the election race. A man with transparent reputation and employment history has nothing to fear. As to the criminal cases, competent authorities — before or after the election — have to deal with it and evaluate it, and I'm neither a judge nor a prosecutor so I can't do it.
Oleksandr Dranikov said he called you out for a debate repeatedly but you kept running away from him?
Never, not once! He didn't talk to me personally, maybe he passed it through someone but I know nothing about it. He said he called me out but where should I go for that debate? — I don't know. Considering nonsense and smear which Dranikov brings, he is a layman, what he can get at the election is 5 to 7 percent of the voters top but not number one as he writes everywhere. In general, I think that he doesn't see any prospects, and I see them because I went through all this step by step — I was a manager, the head of raion, therefore, I know how all the problems can be solved. And the most important in our situation is that we will work as a team, and that is why I agreed to stand for the election. I'm ready to debate with any candidate who calls me out, and if necessary, in 15 minutes and without any preparation.
According to the oppositional candidates, they often aren't allowed to meet with people. For example, Vitalii Klychko came to Vilniansk recently, and the square was dug over there so that he couldn't have met with people. What do you think of it?
I wouldn't want to deal with the situation. I'm not ready to assess it. Klychko has nothing to do with it. Maybe people from his party didn't manage to arrange it. I think that in this situation, there was no pressure, people simply didn't arrange it. I'm not putting pressure on the opposition members and have no such powers.
International observers and political scientists predict fraud at this election. How will you fight fraud?
I've heard of fraud long before the election has started, and, unfortunately, or fortunately, I've heard of it only from the opposition. Today, a lot has been done to prevent same violations and fraud. Cameras have been installed, for which the Government allocated around a billion of hryvnias, and there will be observers so it wouldn't be that easy to falsify it. If still there is fraud, we will react in compliance with the current legislation. Those who will do it should be punished. However, I'm for the absence of fraud, and if control by international observers could be strengthened twice I would like it to be strengthened. So the election can be held democratically, fairly, and transparently.
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.