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Reports of election violations, violence intensify last week

Reports of election violations, violence intensify last week

13 February 2019

Reports of election violations and related violence
have intensified in the last week, according to the National Police and the Opora
election monitoring organization. In the week ending Feb. 10, the National
Police opened 24 criminal cases and registered 118 misdemeanor violations of
election laws, the Interior Ministry of Ukraine reported on Feb. 10. Another
350 complaints and violations were reported. As of Feb. 9, 67 violations of
election laws were reported in the Kyiv region, according to the local police
spokesman.

 

As examples of reported violence, presidential
candidate Oleksandr Vilkul had his face doused with green antiseptic liquid
during a Feb. 2 campaign stop to Berdiansk in the Zaporizhia region. During
another Vilkul campaign visit – to Novomoskovsk in the Dnipropetrovsk region –
police confiscated four bottles with the same liquid, Opora reported on Feb.
12. In Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region, seven smoke grenades were thrown into a
crowd attending a Feb. 9 rally for candidate Yulia Tymoshenko. Six suspects
were arrested, who reportedly had seven items similar to smoke grenades in
their possession, police said. In Zhytomyr, provocateurs ambushed a Feb. 10
campaign event involving candidate Anatoliy Grytsenko and instigated a brawl
with his supporters and security.

 

As for major elections violations, several local media
in the city of Dnipro (Ukraine’s fourth largest) reported that indirect
vote-buying was occurring directly in the city council building, the regional
police said on its website. A video posted on the Internet depicted a man,
identifying himself as a city council representative, said the mayor had been
authorized by the city council to distribute additional payments to pensioners.
To gain the funds, reported at UAH 1,000 (USD 37) the pensioners had to submit
their personal data, the report said. Another claim of pensioner data being
requested in exchange for UAH 1,000 – to vote for President Petro Poroshenko –
was reported in the town of Pryluky in the Chernihiv region, the Opora
organization reported on Feb. 12.

 

Recall, Tymoshenko told a parliamentary agenda session
on Feb. 4 that the Presidential Administration has organized a national
vote-buying network offering UAH 1,000 per vote. In response, Poroshenko Bloc
Parliamentary Head Artur Herasymov accused the Tymoshenko campaign of
conducting a vote-buying scheme.

 

Zenon Zawada: These types
of violent incidents are not unusual not only for Ukraine, but for other
developing countries. Ironically, the Vilkul attacks are likely the work of the
other leading Russian-oriented party (Opposition Platform led by Yuriy Boyko)
because he poses the biggest threat to it. Vilkul poses no threat to leading
candidates.

 

The biggest threat to the elections’ legitimacy –
and being approved by international observers – is the evidence of vote-buying
schemes allegedly involving the Poroshenko campaign. As we’ve mentioned, the
president needs to keep under tight control any possible vote manipulations in
order to get the elections endorsed by Western authorities, which is critical
for his re-election attempt.

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