OPORA has processed voting results published by the CEC, and particularly single-member districts where two or more candidates have the same surname (or even name and patronymic name) or similar surname, to know whether namesake candidates had influenced the rating. This dirty election technology has influenced the voting results only in two districts in 2014 Early Parliamentary elections – ED #216 (Kyiv city) and #68 (Zakarpattia oblast).

It should be mentioned that analyst of the Civil Network OPORA made an analysis of namesake candidates in Ukraine when the observation of Early parliamentary elections has started. However, it's impossible to legally prove that a namesake candidate is a part of technology. Besides that, it's obvious that some fair candidates with identical surnames do exist.

Thus, 33 pairs of namesake candidates participated in Parliamentary elections on 26 October 2014. They were nominated in districts #16, 33, 34, 35, 37, 47, 48, 66, 68, 74, 81, 90, 92, 93, 94, 102, 106, 121, 127, 133, 140, 141, 146, 147, 155, 157, 159, 168, 169, 170, 184, 191, 197, 202, 208, 210, 211, 212, 216, 217, and 223. Besides that, 8 "trios" of candidates with identical or similar surnames were nominated in single-member districts #102, 141 (two "trios"), 147, 197, 212, 217, and 223. In addition, one "quintet" was noticed in the district #68.

It should be mentioned that 13 candidates who had competitors with identical or similar surnames in single-member district are winning according to the results of vote count and, will probably get a seat in the Parliament.

Let's take a closer look at districts where namesake candidates received enough votes to get the second place, and try to understand whether candidates with identical or similar surnames had influenced the election results.

Thus, we need to calculate the correlation between the number of votes given for namesake candidates who received the largest support, and the results of a winner in a district (5th column of the table). Our next step will be the calculation of total number of votes given for namesake candidates, and its comparison with the result of the winner in the district (6th column in the table). This number goes with the number "+" if the total number of votes given for namesake candidates is higher than the result of winner in the district, and number "-" if namesake candidates don't have enough votes to get the first place.

Table 1. Comparison of the total number of votes given for namesake candidates who won in the district (including namesake candidates who took the second place)

ED
#

namesake candidates

(surname, name, patronymic name)

subject of nomination

%
FOR

Votes

FOR

Difference between
1 and 2 places

in a district

Difference
in total with a namesake

37

Mydryi Oleksii Oleksiiovych

The Petro Poroshenko Block

14.69%

9,829

24.33%

16273

"-"22%

17711

Mydryi Oleksii Yevheniiovych,

self-nominated

2.33%

1,562

    

47

Rybachuk Valentyn Leonidovych,

self-nominated

16.88%

6,923

17.29% /

7091

"-" 13.88% /

13756

Rybachuk Anton Viktorovych,

self-nominated

2.02%

832

    

Rybachuk Valentyna Mykolaivna,

self-nominated

1.39%

574

    

68

Kovach Vasyl Illich,

self-nominated

18.81%

16,973

2.77% /

2496

"+"0.81% /

745

Kovach Anton Mykhailovych,

self-nominated

0.89%

803

    

Kovach Vasyl Vasyliovych,

self-nominated

1.59%

1,435

    

Kovach Oleksandr Mykhailovych,

self-nominated

0.56%

514

    

Kovach Laslo Heizovych,

self-nominated

0.54%

489

    

102

Boiko Viktor Oleksiiovych (1961),

self-nominated

12.33%

10,057

17.57% /

14318

"-" 15.29% /

12455

Boiko Viktor Oleksiiovych (1959),

self-nominated

1.42%

1,160

    

Boiko Viktor Oleksandrovych (1949),

self-nominated

0.86%

703

    

106

Ivonin Mykhailo Volodymyrovych,

self-nominated

13.49%

3,522

29.52% /

7700

"-"22.92% /

5977

Ivonin Valentyn Rolandovych,

The Strong Ukraine party of Serhii Tihipko

6.60%

1,723

      

127

Kinakh Anatolii Kyrylovych,

self-nominated

12.77%

7,247

20.04% /

11574

"-" 18.29% /

4327

Kinash Aliona Anatoliivna,

self-nominated

1.75%

993

    

129

Zhuk Mykola Vasyloivych,

self-nominated

21.62%

12,294

18.01% /

10242

"-"13.45% /

7647

Zhuk Volodymyr Vasylovych

self-nominated

4.56%

2,595

    

159

Lysenko Viktor Ivanovych,

 The All-Ukrainian Union Batkivshchyna political party

8.04%

6,181

53.8% /

41311

  

Lysenko Serhii Volodymyrovych,

self-nominated

1.26%

974

    

170

Rodzynskyi Anatolii Anatoliiovych,

The Petro Poroshenko Block

16.3%

11,193

17.67% /

12096

"-"16.17 /

11063

Rodzinskyi Anatolii Rostyslavovych,

self-nominated

1.50%

1,033

    

197

Datsenko Leonid Mykolaiovych,

self-nominated

29.51%

21,075

4.65% /

3319

"-"0.51% /

356

Datsenko Ivan Vasyliovych,

self-nominated

2.20%

1,577

    

Datsenko Oleh Vasyliovych,

self-nominated

1.94%

1,386

    

216

Liapina Kseniia Mykhailivna,

The People's Front political party

23.63%

19,224

0.83% /

673

"+"3.36% /

2739

Lapina Nataliia Oleksiivna,

self-nominated

4.19%

3,412

    

217

Stolar Vadym Mykhailovych,

self-nominated

17.17%

16,002

16.75% /

15443

"-"14.1 /

12965

Stoliar Vadym Anatoliiovych,

self-nominated

1.37%

1,279

    

Stoliar Vadym Hryhorovych,

self-nominated

1.28%

1,199

    
               

Thus, Liapina Kseniia Mykhailivna and Lapina Nataliia Oleksandrivna (ED #216, Kyiv city) received more votes than the winner if to take the total number of votes they both received. They received on 3.36% or 2739 votes more than the winner. We remind that Oleksandr Suprunenko with 19,897 votes (24.46%) is the winner in this district.

The "quintet" of candidates with surname Kovach (ED #68, Zakarpattia oblast) have smaller margin. Kovach Vasyl Illich (number two according to the results of vote count), Kovach Anton Mykhailovych, Kovach Vasyl Vasyliovych, Kovach Oleksandr Mykhailovych and Kovach Laslo Heizovych received on 0.81% or 745 votes more than the winner Robert Horvat.

The "trio" of candidate with surname Datsenko from district #197 (Cherkasy oblast) have the minimal margin with "-":Leonid Mykolaiovych (on the second place), Ivan Vasyliovych, Oleh Vasyliovych. The total number of votes receive by the candidates is 0.51% or 356 votes less than the winner Holub Vladyslav Volodymyrovych received.

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 May 26, more than 2,000 activists will join them to conduct statistically-based parallel vote tabulation.