Despite numerous disagreements and work breaks, District Election Commission #205 has managed to form precinct election commissions through the draw of lots with 361 nominations rejected. At the same time, the DEC decided to reject all nominations of candidate Serhii Berezenko, nominated by Petro Poroshenko Block, due to the incorrect drawing up of documents.
Meeting of the DEC #205 (held at 5 p.m. on 9 July 2015), dedicated to the draw of lots for precinct election commissions' membership, was accompanied by disagreement and controversy between DEC members concerning the need to verify whether nomination documents correspond to requirements of electoral legislation.
According to a representative of Civil Network OPORA, the District Election Commission (DEC) #205 wasn't quite tuned in from the very beginning, causing not less than five breaks during the first 9 hours.
Thus, yet before the draw, DEC members wanted to reject 366 nominees after lists were processed by the Vybory system for the first time revealing that there were minors nominated, as well as members of the AUU Svoboda and "candidates-doubles".
However, such decision was taken not at once, as long as DEC member Serhii Zharko had affirmed that nomination documents submitted on behalf of MP candidate Serhiy Berezenko were filed and signed by his proxy, but not by himself, what is against the law. At the same time, another commission member had claimed that the documents were drawn up correctly when he was receiving them and signing nominations from Serhii Berezenko: containing a signature of proxy on the first page and candidate's signature on the other page.
Thus, commission member Serhii Zharko proposed to reject all nominees from candidate Berezenko and verify whether documents submitted by the other candidates contain technical errors, as long as the Commission couldn't do this while most of the documents were withdrawn by the oblast prosecutor's agency. This issue caused intense discussion among DEC members, with a number of breaks made and Serhii Berezenko's attorney being removed from the meeting, who had no right to attend it. As a result, DEC #205 decided to reject all nomination documents submitted by the proxy of MP candidate Serhii Ivanovych Berezenko (nominated by the Petro Poroshenko Block).
There were a lot of people both in the meeting hall and near the DEC premises till 12 a.m. Besides commission members, the meeting was attended by approximately 40 persons: candidates, their proxies, MPs of Ukraine, and mass media representatives. The following MPs were present: Oleksandr Hranovskyi, Serhii Tryhubenko, Mykhailo Dovbenko, Ruslan Solvar, Serhii Rudyk, Oleksii Savchenko and Andrii Denysenko.
During one of the breaks, six strongly built persons who had registered as correspondents from different press outlets came to the DEC meeting. They all have left the hall as soon as law-enforcement officers arrived.
At the same time, a lot of people have crowded in front of the DEC, counting more than 50 people including students of Chernihiv HEIs, representatives of Chernihiv Self-Defense, and camouflage-dressed people. From time to time, one could hear megaphone speeches. However, everybody had left before 1 a.m. on 10 July.
Another reason of such a prolonged meeting of the DEC was slow functioning of the Vybory system, which was to provide lists of nominees for the draw of lots. As a result, the list of candidates to the membership of PECs was formed at nearly 1 a.m. with the following results: total number of processed nomination documents – 9,834; rejected nominees – 361; number of nominees allowed to participate in the draw – 9473; the highest number of nominees per precinct – 113.
Thus, the draw had started at around 2 a.m. and continued till 5 a.m. OPORA's observer didn't notice any violations during the draw.
After the draw, a break was announced till 12 p.m. on 10 July. In fact, the meetings has continued after 2 p.m. on 10 July, when the membership of precinct election commissions was announced.
Civil Network OPORA continues watching the situation as a part of citizen monitoring of an MP of Ukraine in district #205, and informing the public about any changes.
Justice or electoral technology: Prosecutors involved in conflict related to DEC #205 (full story)