Public Discussion "Have the falsificators of Parliamentary Election 2014 been punished and how to prevent violations at the local elections?"

ANNOUCEMENT

On the 9^th of September a public discussion "Have the falsificators of Parliamentary Election 2014 been punished and how to prevent violations at the local elections?" will be held from 15:00 to 17:00 in Kyiv (Yaroslaviv Val str., 22, Radisson Blue Hotel, conference room Embassy Suite 2 + 4). Organizers of the event are the Civil Network OPORA and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), which will be presenting the results of monitoring of law enforcement and judicial institutions of Ukraine related to investigation of crimes against voting rights committed in the parliamentary elections 2014.

Despite the progress of Ukraine in ensuring the standards of elections, early elections to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in October 2014 were accompanied by violations requiring an objective and systematic investigation. In general, the authorities of internal affairs opened 291 criminal proceedings for offenses against voting rights. Most criminal proceedings were initiated in Kyiv city, Donetsk, Odesa, Kyiv and Chernihiv regions. According to the data of independent observers and law enforcement agencies the most common violations of voting rights were bribery of voters, falsification of election documents, multiple voting, disorder in campaign financing.

During the public debate organizers will present the results of research and offer to work out of top-priority steps to prevent massive abusive practice at the local elections, to ensure the inevitability of the punishment for crimes committed in the election, effective consideration of the experience of last year's elections.

The event will take place with the technical support of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), and the support of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development of Canada (DFATD) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The viewpoints expressed during the event do not necessarily reflect the views of IFES, DFATD or USAID.

Event language: Ukrainian. There will be simultaneous translation into English.

Participation in the event requires mandatory registration till 18:00, 08.09.2015: https://goo.gl/oLpr10

Organizers will confirm your participation with email notification.

For information:

Most criminal proceedings in 2014 regarded a violation of Article 157 of the Criminal Code (Obstruction of electoral law, the work of election commission or the work of an official observer). On the second place are criminal proceedings under Article 158 of the Criminal Code (providing false information to the authority of the State Register of Voters or falsification of election documents, results of the voting or information of the State Register of voters) - 46 criminal proceedings. Under Article 160 of the Criminal Code (bribery of voters) 37 criminal proceedings were initiated – that is the third place among the totality initiated proceedings.

Instead, under Article 158-1 of the Criminal Code (Illegal use of the ballot, voting more than once) 17 proceedings were launched, under Article 159-1 of the Criminal Code (Violation of campaign financing of the candidate, political party (bloc) -9 proceedings, under Article 158 -2 (illegal destruction of election documents) – 1 proceeding. Under Article 159 of the Criminal Code (violation of the secrecy of the vote) no criminal proceeding were violated.