Press Announcement
Voter Bribery and Administrative Resource: Peculiarities of 2014 Parliamentary Elections
On 16 October 2014, at 12:30pm the press-conference titled "Voter bribery and administrative resource: peculiarities of 2014 Parliamentary elections" will be held by the Civil Network OPORA in the UNIAN Information Agency (4 Khreshatyk St., Kyiv). Experts will report on the most flagrant incidents of voter bribery and misuse of administrative resource committed by political parties and MP candidates during the Parliamentary campaign in Ukraine. Moreover, an interactive Map of violations "2014 Parliamentary elections" (http://map.oporaua.org/) displaying violations reported during the election campaign and the most problematic oblasts will be presented.
OPORA has reported about numerous incidents of indirect voter bribery committed by MP candidates in cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, as well as in Volyn, Zaporizhia and other oblasts. Particularly, several MP candidates disseminated product sets, monetary rewards, certificates, free repairs or equipment for citizens and institutions, what is direct electoral law violation and may be classified as a criminal case.
On the other hand, despite the administrative resources are used less by candidates and political parties if compared to previous parliamentary elections, such incidents were already reported in Sumy, Kherson, and Zakarpattia oblasts. For example, public servants are attracted to meetings with candidates during their working hours.
You will get information about the most flagrant incidents of voter bribery and misuse of administrative resource committed by political parties and MP candidates, as well as recommendations given to government bodies, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and ordinary voters, from the experts:
- Olha Aivazovska, Electoral and Parliamentary Programs Coordinator at the Civil Network OPORA;
- Oleksandr Kliuzhev, OPORA's analyst.
Accreditation is conducted on-the-spot by press cards.
Live broadcast should be available here: http://press.unian.net/live/
Detailed information: Vasyl Babych, Press-secretary of the OPORA, +38 096 194 86 69.
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 electoral violations through comprehensive civic action. Starting from September 2014, Civil Network OPORA conducts a large-scale observation of special parliamentary elections in Ukraine. The organization will attract 213 long-term observers in every region of Ukraine to monitor the campaign from its official start to announcement of the final election results. On the Election Day on October 26, 2014, more than 2,000 activists will join them to conduct statistically-based parallel vote tabulation.