Observers of the Civil Network OPORA who monitor the Election day at 1,003 polling station across Ukraine report:
OPORA observers report about the first attempts to influence the voting results. At PEC #8 of Election District 180 in Kharkiv city, a student took a picture of her ballot. The polling station is stationed in the Construction Lyceum building which is within boundaries of student dormitories. OPORA suspects there is a possibility of influencing free vote expression of students.
Yesterday, on the Ukrainian border with Romania, two citizens of Ukraine were detained with two packages of ballots. The detainees said they had an intention to stuff ballots in ballot boxes at the polling station of Ferysholmosh village in Zabolottia, the majority of the population of which represent the Hungarian ethnic group.
Besides, yesterday night there was a case registered at DEC #69 in Uzhorod city confirming the delivery of party observer IDs without any personal names and party names specified. The head of the commission delivered IDs to party representatives personally. This means that any person may take advantage of having an ID and be present at the polling station during voting and tabulation of votes with the goal to perform a provocation. Civil network OPORA managed to take pictures of an ID (see attached).
OPORA reports that its observers who work as journalists have been deprived of their right to observe. Head of PEC 19 at Election District 43 in Donetsk city said to two OPORA journalists that they could not stay at the polling station all the time because the room was too small. The head also demanded that journalists showed an editorial assignment from the newspaper, which is not stipulated by the law. The conflict was resolved by explaining provisions of the law to the commissioners.
Note: On Election Day OPORA is conducting a statistical quick count. Statistical quick counts are projections based on actual voting results from a random sample of polling stations around Ukraine. OPORA will have 1,003 polling places covered by monitors who will phone or text turnout, results and violations to a central database and phone centre. The results of the quick count will be announced on January 18, at 9.30am in the INTERFAX Informational Agency (8/5a Reitarska St.)
Contact person: Iryna Shvets (063 628 68 40)