The Governing Party Obtains the Majority of Executive Positions in the TECs Monitoring Results of CN OPORA

September, 22, 2010
PRESS RELEASE
The Governing Party Obtains the Majority of Executive Positions in the TECs
Monitoring Results of CN OPORA

Six out of the forty-seven parties that attained executive positions in the newly formed territorial election commissions (TEC) took the majority of leadership positions. The governing parliamentary coalition received the most, gaining 1,042 TEC head, deputy head and secretary positions. Opposition parliamentary parties received half as many. The reason for this unequal distribution lies in the current election law which stipulates that the appointment of the TEC leadership is by the Central Election Commission, working without solid and clear selection criteria. The Civic Network OPORA expresses its concern at such an imbalance as in the upcoming five years these territorial commissions will be responsible for determining election results that reflect the will of citizens in local elections.
On September, 15, the Central Election Commission (CEC) completed the formation of Territorial Election Commissions (TEC). Their basic task is to organize the local elections, which will take place on October 31.
A total of 74 political parties submitted nominations for TEC positions. Among them, 15 political parties made their submissions from parliamentary parties while candidates from the remaining 59 parties had to draw lots.
The Party of Regions, Communist Party and People`s Party, which form separate factions in the Verkhovna Rada, had the right to nominate three candidatures to each TEC. According to OPORA, members of this coalition were therefore able to obtain the possibility of controlling half of all TEC positions in Ukraine.
By contrast, parties in the Tymoshenko Block were forced to compete with one another to obtain TEC representation. These parties submitted three nominations for each TEC, and the CEC decided which of the party nominations should be included in each TEC. However, within the Tymoshenko Block there were conflicts. For example, two separate oblast organizations of Batkivshchyna submitted nominations to the TEC in Kyiv oblast and Lviv oblast simultaneously. The CEC took the final decision concerning which candidates would be taken into account during TEC formation. The TEC formation in Kherson is another example. There representatives of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party (USDP) obtained membership of the TEC based on the Batkivshchyna quota. However, the USDP is not active in Kherson oblast. OPORA observers noted that several USDP representatives were appointed to executive positions in commissions. However, the leaders of local USDP branches state that they did not submit any candidate names to the CEC. Indeed, there is evidence that one nomination sent to the CEC was signed on behalf of a deceased party leader.
The Block “Our Ukraine – People Self Defense” faced an even more complicated situation. For the 2007 elections this block consisted of nine political parties, although now they hardly cooperate.  The level of competition between parties in this block is very high. After considering nominations submitted by party-members, the CEC, using its discretion, decided which names should obtain TEC membership.
Crucial to the election process are the appointing of executive members to the local commissions. TEC executive positions (heads, deputies, secretaries) take responsibility for organizing the elections and the voting process, and officially announce the results of local elections - the will of the people – for the coming 5 years. The Party of Regions obtained the majority of TEC head positions with 210 seats. Other parties received TEC head position as follows: Batkivshchyna: 108; People`s Party: 99; Communist Party: 55; Our Ukraine: 45; USDP: 31.
The same political parties obtained the majority of deputy head and secretary positions: Party of Regions: 123 and 115 respectively; People`s Party: 123 and 88 respectively; Batkivshchyna: 97 and 90; Communist Party: 93 and 96; Our Ukraine: 59 and 49; USDP: 46 and 25. All other parties received less then 20 secretary positions.
According to the CEC decision, 669 TECs were formed in Ukraine for local elections at all levels. An exception was the newly formed TEC in the city of Kyiv which will not be holding elections. Of the TECs formed, 24 are oblast TEC, 474 rayon TEC (everywhere except for rayon in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea), 167 are municipal TEC (everywhere except for the cities of oblast subordination and city of Sevastopol) and 4 rayon TEC in Sevastopol. Although competition for TEC seats was high, almost half the TEC have less then the full 18 members.
TEC formation has been carried out in an appropriate manner. The way TECs have been formed will define their professionalism and transparency. The Civic Network (CN) OPORA has been monitoring TEC formation in all regions. It has also looked at data concerning approved TEC members and executives.
Summarizing the campaign findings, OPORA defines the following threats to the election process:

The next important stage of the election process is nomination of candidates to the local councils and candidates for the position of mayor. This will begin on September 27 and run-up until October 8 inclusive. CN OPORA will be monitoring this process and will further inform journalists about violations of norms and principles of fair elections.

OPORA TEC Formation Report 230910

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For interview and comments, please, contact:
Olga Ayvazovska, Chairman of the Board of CN OPORA
tel. : 063-617-97-50; e-mail:   [email protected]    
Dmytro Gnap, Press-secretary of CN OPORA, 
tel.: 067-629-51-34;  e-mail: [email protected]