Liudmyla Babenko, a proxy of MP candidate Nataliia Bahmut (nominated in ED #97), wrote a letter to Electoral Programs Coordinator at Civil Network OPORA in Kyiv oblast Ruslana Velychko. The author of letter wrote: "It seems that those "jurists" who helped you to prepare the material published on OPORA's site were either drunk or smoked strong narcotic substance. You should throw this "jurist" out neck and crop."
She was talking about a news article "Young man obstructed to activities of an official observer deployed by OPORA to DEC #97".
Besides that, Ms. Babenko was concerned about the reference to Article 157 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The woman alleged that wording of the Article was changed.
Liudmyla Babenko thinks that the Article contains the following regulations:
"1. The use of force, deceit, threat, bribery, or other means to obstruct free application of citizen right to choose and be chosen as a President of Ukraine, MP of Ukraine, MP of the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, member of a city council, village, town, and city head, or to conduct election campaign,
shall be punished by restriction of liberty for three to five years or deprivation of liberty for two to four years.
2. These very offenses, committed by a group of people in conspiracy, by a member of election commission or other official misusing his/her powers or authority,
shall be punished by deprivation of liberty for two to five years.
3. Actions, covered by paragraphs one and two of this Article, which have influenced the election results
shall be punished by deprivation of liberty for seven to twelve years.
Civil Network OPORA would like to remind Ms. Babenko that the efficient wording of the CrCU, cited in the article, came into force on 23 February 2006. The text that Liudmyla Babenko cited in her letter was effective 8 years ago and, therefore, is out of date. To prevent similar incidents in the future, Civil Network OPORA recommends to use the official website of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, containing the latest effective legislation, including the Article 157, which raised concerns of the proxy of candidate Bahmut.
"Article 157. Obstruction to the use of voting rights or the right to participate in a referendum, work in election commission or referendum commission, or as an official observer
1. Obstruction to the use of voting rights or the right to participate in a referendum by a citizen, obstruction to activities of other electoral subjects, referendum initiative group, referendum commission, member of election commission, member of a referendum initiative group, member of a referendum commission, or an official observer on duty, related to bribery, deceit, or compulsion, as well as non-fulfillment of duties in commission with no due reason
shall be punished by a fee from three hundred to five hundred untaxed salary minimums or restriction of liberty for up to two years, or deprivation of liberty for the same period with no right to hold the certain positions or be involved into the certain activities from one to three years.
2. These very actions, followed by the application of force, destruction or damage of belongings, threats to apply the force, destroy or damage belongings,
- shall be punished by up to three years of restriction of liberty or deprivation of liberty for the same period with no right to hold the certain positions or be involved into the certain activities from one to three years.».
Citation on OPORA's site: Article 157(2) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine provides the responsibility for obstruction to activities of official observers, followed by the application of force, destruction or damage of belongings, threats to apply the force, destroy or damage belongings, shall be punished by up to three years of restriction of liberty or deprivation of liberty for the same period with no right to hold the certain positions or be involved into the certain activities from one to three years.
Liudmyla Babenko has also has doubts that an unidentified person was present in the DEC, despite OPORA's observer recorded this person on video. We remind that the man took away the camera and made the official observer to delete the video. However, the technical support department of the Civil Network OPORA restored the data. Thus, the voters can clearly see the face of that man, who introduced himself as a proxy of Nataliia Bahmut.
We should also mention that OPORA's observer reported this incident to the MIAU, case #146014. We recommend appealing to law-enforcement bodies for details on the case.
We would also like to mention that it's enough to apply to the district election commission to receive the list of official observers.
Civil Network OPORA calls all electoral subjects to adhere to the effective legislation, and emphasizes: according to the Article 297 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, "everyone has the right to have his honor respected and his dignity recognized. Dignity and honor of a physical person are inviolable..."
We hope that Civil Network OPORA managed to fully explain the situation and satisfy the curiosity of Ms. Babenko concerning a violation at the DEC #97.