Donetsk Oblast: PEC Member of Opposition Refuses Voters to Correct Surnames in Voter List

On 19 October, at the polling station No.142210 (SMED No.56, Makiyivka), the commission member of the All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland refused to accept the request of a citizen for the correction of errors in the voter list.

Voter Nina Volodymyrivna Zhemchuzhnykova received the voter invitation card where an error was made in her surname — instead of letter И, there was letter І. For two other family members, the surname on the cards was specified correctly. “On 19 October, at 8.30am, my daughter and I came to the polling station to check how my surname was written in the voter list, and, if required, to write a request for correction,” Ms Zhemchuzhnykova notes. “At the time, there was one employee at the station, who later introduced herself as Svitlana Fedorivna Starovoitova, commission member of the All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland. She checked my surname in the voter list, made a note about the error in her notebook, and said that at that election, no one would change anything for me, only at the next one. When I asked  why, she explained that this morning all points of clarification the commission alleged to forward to the State Registrar body, and no amendments would be introduced,” said the voter.

When the voter noted that she wanted to exercise her right to write a request for clarification of the voter list and submit it to the PEC, the employee of the commission, in a peremptory tone, sent the voter to the Department of State Registrar of the Executive Committee. According to the law, until 22 October, a voter can choose where to submit the request — to the PEC or to the Department of State Registrar of Voters. Paragraphs 4 and 5 of Article 40 of the Law of Ukraine On Election of People's Deputies say, “A voter shall personally submit a request concerning the circumstances specified in part three of this Article to the precinct election commission, or directly to the State Registrar body. Should a voter not be able to submit a request personally due to health reasons, the precinct election commission shall, upon request of such voter, provide for acceptance of the request from such voter in another manner. Documents (copies of documents) certifying the information presented therein shall be enclosed with the request. The request specified in part three of this Article shall be filed no later than five days prior to the election day, and shall be considered by the electoral commission within one day. A request submitted after the aforementioned deadline shall not be considered.”

Commission member Ms Starovoitova explained her refusal to accept the request by the lack of appropriate forms, “We don't make any amendments to these lists. The Registration Commission of the City Executive Committee deals with it. They have the forms — we don't have the forms. Neither the City Executive Committee not the Raion Executive Committee  gave us such forms. Only the Registrar of the Raion Executive Committee has these forms,” Svitlana Starovoitova noted. However, every voter, according to the law, can write a request on a plain A4 sheet of paper according to the sample provided in the law and enclose copies of the required documents which confirm the information provided in the request.

The precedence occurred in the PEC No.142210 situated in the ED No.56 at the following address — Assembly Hall of the Computing Centre, Torez Street, Computing Centre ZVK No.97, Makiyivka, Donetsk Oblast, 86121.