Results Of Parallel Vote Tabulation Conducted by Civil Network OPORA at Polling Stations in District #205 During By-Election of MP of Ukraine

According to the parallel vote tabulation conducted by OPORA on the basis of PEC preliminary protocols on vote count at polls, candidate SERHII BEREZENKO, nominated by the Solidarity Petro Poroshenko Block political party, has won with 33.59% of votes. HENNADII KORBAN, nominated by the Ukrainian Union of Patriots – UKROP party, is on the second place with 13.81% of votes. The third place with 7.73% of votes, according to the results of parallel vote tabulation, was taken by VOLODYMYR ZUB, supported by the Samopomich Union party. IHOR ANDRIICHENKO (Democratic Alliance) has received 7.48% of votes. Self-nominated candidate MYKOLA ZVIERIEV was supported by 7.15% of voters.  6.53% of voters gave their votes to ANDRII MISHCHENKO, nominated by the AUU Svoboda.

The other candidates have gained the following percentage of votes:

• Self-nominated candidate OLEKSII DEMIANENKO affiliated in the Opposition Block party - 5.1%;
• candidate ANDRII MELNYK, nominated by the Civil Position party - 3.14%;
• Other candidates have received 11.83% of votes in total.

3.66% of ballots turned out to be invalid.

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT of the Civil Network OPORA regarding the Election Day and Vote Count During By-Election Of MP Of Ukraine in District #205

Election campaign and the voting day at by-election of an MP of Ukraine in district #205 (Chernihiv) were accompanied by violations of election administration standards and manifestations of unfair competition between candidates. Candidates were increasingly relying on money in their campaigning strategies, election participants have had disproportionate access to media resources, and top competitors in the election were ready to violate the law. All these factors have complicated a free voting process in the district.

As for adherence to electoral standards in district #205, the key problem was inadequate fulfillment of state's obligation to stop any violations during the election process.

Its ability to prevent electoral violations was in question even before the election day scheduled for 26 July 2015, when the corresponding bodies were not very actively and consistently responding to candidates' attempts to use illegal means of competition.

Unfortunately, law-enforcement bodies were mostly focused on securing the public order and safety during campaigning, voting process and vote count, and made barely any effort to prevent election law violations. At the same time, a free voting process is impossible if electoral subjects don't adhere to law requirements and the certainty of punishment principle is not guaranteed.

Although the responsibility for voter bribery was significantly strengthened in 2014, it has not been counteracted systematically and could have had grave influence on free voting process and election outcomes. Various direct and indirect voter bribery schemes have not only influenced the choices citizens made, but also demotivated to participate in the voting process. Misuse of administrative resources, manipulation of public opinion about the fact that certain candidates have access to the state and local development programs have undermined citizen trust to impartiality of the state in this election.

As long as the most active candidates were using unfair campaign means, including quite spendy ones, the principle of equal opportunities couldn't be realized in full capacity.

So-called force support groups, which were formally enjoying the rights of printed mass media or official observers, were often present inside or outside of polling stations. At the same time, a lot of voters tried to take pictures of their marked ballots (at almost 11% of polls), what could be a sing of outside control over the choice people make, related to bribery schemes.

Civil Network OPORA calls on law enforcement bodies of Ukraine to use parliamentary control mechanisms to inspect electoral law violations committed during by-election of an MP in district #205 in an unbiased way, and the candidates should secure thorough assistance in the corresponding investigations.

Typical violations, reported during the voting process and vote count

OPORA had been monitoring the overall situation in single-member district #205 on the election day, and watched whether precinct election commissions adhere to the main electoral procedures. OPORA's correspondents had been recording violations and incidents which occurred in 82 precinct election commissions.

All the commission covered by activists held their morning meetings in time. However, 13% of precinct election commissions opened their preparatory meetings earlier than 7:15 a.m. According to the Law of Ukraine on Elections of People's Deputies of Ukraine, preparatory meetings should be held not earlier than 45 minutes before the voting begins. As a result, media representatives and observers couldn't cover and observe the course of morning meetings in these PECs. All the PECs in the district conducted duly authorized meetings with a quorum. Almost 12 % of PECs failed to fill in protocols of preparatory meeting despite such a requirement established by the Law.

Besides that, not all the commissions have launched the voting process in time. According to OPORA's data, 13% of PECs opened earlier than 8:00 a.m., what is a violation of Article 85(1) of the Law.

During the first hours of the voting process (from 8 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.), the most frequent violation was presence of unauthorized persons in a polling place, particularly MPs. These situations occurred at almost 40% of polling stations. Violation of the voting secrecy was noticed in more than 7% of PECs. In more than 2% of PECs voters tried to leave the polls with their ballots.

The presence of unauthorized persons (usually MPs) was also the most widespread violation in precinct election commissions from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. For example, MPs Anatolii Matviienko, Andrii Pavel, Yurii Solovei, Maksym Kurchyi, and Oleksii Honcharenko from the Petro Poroshenko Block; Valerii Dubil from the Batkivshchyna party; Andrii Lozovyi from the Radical Party; and unaffiliated MP Borys Filatov. Article 34 of the Law of Ukraine on Elections of People's Deputies of Ukraine establishes a complete list of individuals who can be present at a polling station on the voting day without any permit or approval of the corresponding commission. MPs are not included in this list. Thus, they can be present only at polling station where they are registered to vote, and only during the time necessary to cast the vote.

Journalists of the Tochka Zoru edition, whose documents (journalist's certificate) were falsified, were present at many polling stations. Some of them were detained by the police to ascertain the circumstances. OPORA has noticed some people at polling stations (observers, journalists of the Tochka Zoru edition, proxies) wearing wristlets with UKROP logo. This symbol, registered by a charitable fund of the same name, was used by MP candidate Hennadii Korban, nominated by the UKROP party, during the campaigning period.

At almost 11% of polling stations, OPORA's observers noticed voters taking pictures of their ballots. Such numerous attempts to take picture of ballots could be a sign of bribery scheme, particularly a control over voters' choice. 

Violation of the voting secrecy was reported at almost 10% of polling stations. At the same time, only in 2% of polls, voters tried leave the polls with their ballots. According to the Article 159 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, deliberate violation of the voting secrecy during election or referendum, when choice of a voter is intentionally disclosed, shall be punished with a fine or from one to three hundred of untaxed salary minimums, corrective labor works for up to two years, or restriction on liberty for up to three years.

We have also detected various types of indirect voter bribery at almost 10% of polls, intended to induce the citizens to vote for the certain candidate. Unidentified persons placed tents next to polling stations and disseminated free concert tickets. Leaflets about this concert, with Ivan Dorn, Druha Rika, and Nikita performing, had been disseminated from tents placed by the UKROP Charitable Fund on the eve of election day. According to the Article 74(14) of the Law of Ukraine on Elections of People's Deputies of Ukraine, it shall be prohibited to hand out money or distribute for free or on a preferential basis commodities as a part of campaigning efforts (except items bearing the visual images of the name, symbol, or flag of a party, provided that the value of such items does not exceed three percent of the minimum salary), services, works, securities, loans, lottery tickets, other tangible assets to voters, establishments, institutions, or organizations.

On the final stage of the voting process (from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.), most of the conflicts between electoral stakeholders emerged due to the presence of unauthorized persons on meetings of election commissions. OPORA has detected such instances at almost one third (29%) part of polling stations in the district.

The voters took pictures of their ballots at almost 10% of polling stations. Officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) have detained persons who committed such criminal offence after official observers, mass media representatives, and members of election commissions intruded.

During the last four hours of the voting process, OPORA's correspondents who covered the course of election process at precincts have also noticed incidents of the violation of the voting secrecy at 6% of polling stations.

At 6% of polling stations, observers noticed incidents with indirect voter bribery features, aimed to illegally influence voters' choice. At 6% of polling stations, OPORA's correspondents were illegally removed from poling sites and, therefore were deprived of the possibility to observe elections. For example, OPORA's representative have noticed a number of election law violations at polling station #741033 (173 Pershoho Travnia St.), what became a ground for the commission to deprive her right to stay in the polling place. The official reason why the journalist of OPORA's official media resource was that she prevented voters from approaching voting booths. The real reason was, however, that commission members have committed a number of violations, and the observer has drawn their attention to this fact. There was another attempt to remove OPORA's journalist at polling station #741053.

Besides that, after the voting and vote count were finished, law-enforcement officers kept OPORA's observers at polling stations and didn't let them leave PECs. Such situation was noticed at polling stations #741028, #741026 (9 Dotsenka St.), #740987 (23 Shevchenka St.), #741046 (5 Volkovycha St.), and #740986 (14 Hetmana Polubotka St.). We have submitted statements to the Chernihiv City Internal Affairs Department concerning illegal actions of police officers.

Voter turnout on the Election Day (calculated by the OPORA)

Within the parallel vote tabulation, Civil Network OPORA has analyzed the voter turnout as of 12:00 PM, 4:00 PM, and 8:00 PM.

The average turnout at by-election of an MP in single-member district #205 was predictably low – 35.2% (as of 8:00 p.m.). It's 21.75% less than voter’s turnout in this district on early parliamentary elections 2014.

Table: Voter turnout throughout the Election Day: