Civil Network OPORA is surprised about the comment of MFA of Ukraine, published on the official web site of the Ministry on December 27, at 6:04pm. The comment concerns the assessment of repeated elections in 5 problematic districts. It also contains a statement that Ukrainian civic organizations have positively assessed the election campaign and confirmed Ukraine's adherence to democratic electoral principles.

OPORA, for its part, would like to state that most foreign missions and Ukrainian organizations haven't announced final reports on electoral monitoring yet. Traditionally, such data is published after a month/month and a half after the election day. Observation of full value should include: 1) assessment pre-electoral situation and violations during the election campaign, which may affect the voting results; 2) analysis of the organization of elections and vote count process; 3) assessment of determination and announcement of the election results; 4) analysis of the legislative base regulating the electoral process etc. It's impossible to give full and meaningful assessment of the election process without monitoring results on all its stages.

Besides that, OPORA's early assessment of pre-electoral situation and the voting process in quite critical. Moreover, OPORA has reported the following:

  • In comparison to 2012, the unlawful use of shadowed resources has increased in 2013. Observers were systematically receiving information about voter bribery, hazardous to free choice of the citizens;
  • On December 15, OPORA has reported multiple violations of the voting secrecy through disclosure of secret ballot, photographing of ballots, and presence of irrelevant persons in the polling place. These facts prove that the elections were unlawfully interfered through control over the voting process;
  • Observers reported inaction of law enforcement agencies during the whole election campaign, when subjects of the election process or observers appealed to them;
  • 2 observers of OPORA were threatened during the election day, particularly in districts #94 and #132.

Thus, OPORA asks the Ministry of Foreign Affairs not to mention OPORA as an organization, which have confirmed that repeated elections in 5 districts were conducted in accordance with democratic standards. Observation results and final assessment will be published in the final report till late January 2015.