Ukraine police chief accuses Poroshenko campaign of vote-buying

The Poroshenko re-election campaign has arranged a
scheme to buy votes among pensioners, Internal Affairs Minister Arsen Avakov
alleged in a television talk show on March 11. Such vote-buying schemes involve
campaign workers contacting local state officials to allocate funds (UAH 1,000
per pensioner) from a state program providing assistance for the elderly, he
said in his first direct accusation of vote-buying against the president.
Campaign workers then call the pensioner to confirm they received funds, asking
them to uphold their commitment to vote for the president, Avakov alleged.
These schemes are being employed in the cities of Kyiv and Odesa, as well as
the regions of Kyiv, Odesa and Kharkiv, he said. More than 2,000 summons have
been issued against those involved in the vote-buying schemes. When asked what
other candidates may be employing such schemes, Avakov said the State Bureau of
Investigations is investigating claims against Tymoshenko.

Recall, Avakov is widely recognized to have a
political alliance with presidential contender Yulia Tymoshenko. Nationalist
organizations, widely believed to be under his control, attempted to attack the president this weekend
after the emergence of the Russian military parts scandal, which has been a
central theme of the Tymoshenko campaign. In addition, Tymoshenko has offered a full endorsement of Avakov’s work
as internal affairs minister.

Zenon Zawada: It’s
entirely realistic that such vote-buying schemes are in play, and it’s also
realistic that Tymoshenko has employed her own schemes, which she is accused of
doing by the Poroshenko campaign. What’s most important about these claims is
that they undermine the public trust in the election results. And with the
public unable to believe the Central Election Commission, they will be turning
to Western election observing organizations, particularly the OSCE, to offer
the final verdict.

But accusations of vote-buying by the nation’s
police chief are already laying the groundwork for these international
observers to withhold their endorsement of these elections as being free and
fair. Such an endorsement will be critical for Poroshenko to claim to have been
re-elected, though U.S. officials recently indicated they won’t give him a blank check.