On30 May 2015, by-election campaign has officially started in SMD #205 to fill vacant seat in the Parliament. Before the deadline established by the Law, the CEC has registered a record-breaking number of candidates for MP – 127, and 119 of them are self-nominated candidates. Civil Network OPORA, which conducts election monitoring campaign, has noticed some provocative and use-of-force incidents during the election process, and warns about possible misuse of administrative resources by the certain candidates.
According to Yevhen Romanenko, Electoral Programs Coordinator at Civil Network OPORA in Chernivtsi oblast, only 5 of 127 candidates were campaigning in June 2015: Hennadii Korban (nominated by the UKROP party), Serhii Berezenko (nominated by the Solidarity Petro Poroshenko Block), Yurii Tarasovets (self-nominated, affiliated in the UDAR party), Andrii Mishchenko (nominated by the AUU Svoboda) and self-nominated candidate Taras Kostanchuk. However, most of candidates are barely known to voters in the district and, therefore, there is a risk of their confusion on the voting day.
We are particularly worried about a complete distrust between candidates, who are actively campaigning in the district, and about some provocative and use-of-force incidents. Having received an anonymous notification about explosives in premises of the CEC, it couldn't receive documents of potential candidates on the last official registration day (25 June). An incident involving Internal Affairs employee, who has beaten campaigners of MP candidate Hennadii Korban while being under alcohol influence, must be comprehensively investigated in an unbiased manner.
it should be mentioned that direct or indirect misuse of administrative resources can jeopardize legitimacy of the election process and is one of key electoral challenges in Ukraine. According to OPORA's analyst Oleksandr Kliuzhev, a decision to make one of the candidates – Serhii Beresenko, nominated by the Solidarity Petro Poroshenko Block, – responsible for implementation of development projects in Chernihiv oblast in the Regional Development Council under the President of Ukraine.
Having monitored resolutions passed by the Central Election Commission, OPORA has revealed that 10 of 18 members of current DEC #205 don't have experience of election organization in DEC membership (as of 7/1/2015). At the same time, the CEC has passed four Resolutions on changes in the Commission membership since 3 June 2015 and, as a result, 8 of 18 members were excluded from the "first" membership of the DEC. Excessive number of MP candidates can negatively influence the creation and functioning of precinct election commissions, as long as active campaign participants may monopolize influence in commissions through quotas of little-known candidates.
Civil Network OPORA calls law enforcement bodies to demonstrate a coordinated and effective response to violations of electoral legislation and information about such violations during the election process in district #205, and central and local governmental bodies to take up an unbiased stand towards electoral process and candidates. The CEC should secure a systematic coordination of election commissions during the election process. At the same time, the candidates must demonstrate discretion and take into consideration that excessive conflicts can question recognition of election results by the public.