"For the Fair Referendum Coalition of NGOs calls all citizens and political forces to refrain from the referendum initiation till legislation regulating this issue is brought in correspondence with the standards of the Council of Europe." - Stated representatives of the Coalition during the press-conference held on September 9. A number of civic organizations were monitoring the assembly held on Spartak stadium, where citizens from different regions were brought by organizers. The Communist Party of Ukraine presented this assembly as "an assembly of Ukrainian citizens on conduction of the all-Ukrainian referendum by people's initiative on Ukraine's accession to the Eurasian Economic Community."
According to the experts, they have many questions regarding the procedures of its conduction, and its status remains undetermined. "Legitimacy of the assembly, organized by the Communist Party and the Viktor Medvedchuk's Ukrainian Choice public movement, shall be collectively determined during an open meeting of the CEC. There are a lot of procedural variances in the event, – states Olha AIVAZOVSKA, Electoral and Parliamentary Programs Coordinator of the Civil Network OPORA. – First of all, there are two resolutions of the court which prohibit members of the CEC to officially participate in an assembly on conduction of the all-Ukrainian referendum. According to the Law, the event shall be officially certified by a delegated commission member. Yurii Donchenko, member of the CEC, said that he was attending the assembly as a physical person. Besides that, topic of the assembly, indicated in documents filed to the CEC, doesn't correspond to its subject matter. At first, the court had banned an assembly regarding accession to the Customs Union, initiated by the CPU. Then, the "citizens" filed another petition to conduct assembly regarding Eurasian Economic Community. However, the question, introduced for the approval, (which was going to be used on the referendum), was the following: "Do you support Ukraine's accession to the Customs Union of the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation?" It was obviously the invention of organizers, not a change in the subject matter of the assembly. Therefore, member of the CEC and organizers have neglected the Court resolution. Besides that, even if the referendum will be held, the plebiscite decision is not an obstacle for signing the Association Agreement. They don't ask citizens if they are against the EU integration vector."
There was pass verification on the stadium. Only holders of individual passes with symbols of the CPU were allowed to enter. In result, legal executive who was supposed to deliver the decision of the Kyiv Administrative District Court, wasn't allowed to enter the stadium, in contrast to member of the CEC. Journalists of the leading media were also left behind the gate. Organizers of the assembly have grossly violated journalists' right to promulgate the assembly of an initiative group on referendum, – emphasized journalist Nataliia Sokolenko, participant of the For the Fair Referendum Coalition. – The Law of Ukraine on National Referendum provides: all stages of preparation to the referendum shall be opened and public. Instead, people in red jackets with symbols of the CPU prevented journalists of the 5th Channel, TVi, TRK, ERA, Radio Svoboda, Den', Ukrainska Pravda, from entering the stadium. Therefore, people in red jackets were hindering journalistic activity and shall bear criminal responsibility for their actions. Despite participants of the Coalition called the police to the place of incident, operation officers didn't show up. Or, in other words, they failed to take measure against the violation.
Coalition participants have emphasized one more time risks resulting from the Law of Ukraine on National Referendum and the necessity to fundamentally change it in accordance to European standards on referendums and recommendations of the Venice Commission. Therefore, experts, human rights activists and journalists have addressed the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, Chairman of the VRU Volodymyr Rybak, Members of Parliament, and Authorized Human Rights Representative of the VRU Valеria Lutkovska in an open appeal calling to further elaboration of the Law. They have also expressed the willingness to join elaboration of its new wording and secure wide public discussion on major changes and their purpose. "We may dispute over what has actually happened on the Spartak stadium, but it won't change the fact that it's just a pure politics and the beginning of 2015 election campaign, – says Oleksandra MATVIICHUK, Head of the Board of the Center for Civil Liberties. – If statesmen really care about declaration of citizen will, they should immediately return citizens the right to conduct local referendums, which they had lost after the new law on all-Ukrainian referendum was adopted. Politicians can show their true intentions by amending this law, which was adopted by circumventing the Constitution of Ukraine, in a way that it would allow real sovereignty of the people."
Coalition representatives call all citizens and political forces to refrain from the referendum initiation until legislation regulating this issue is brought in correspondence with the standards of the Council of Europe. "Having initiated the referendum, the CPU has created a dangerous precedent of using the Law, every procedure of which should be improved, – says Svitlana Kononchuk, Head of the Political Institutes Democratization Program of the Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research. – The problem is not the dispute about subject matter of the referendum, but that the wording of the Law doesn't secure free voting and fair vote count. Next time, when results of the other referendum will turn out to be surprising and undesirable for the majority of citizens, they will have no grounds to distrust such results and appeal to the law imperfection. Having played by fake rules one time, you will have to obey them in the future."
Press Conference was held by the Center for Civil Liberties together with For the Fair Referendum Coalition of NGOs, supported by the Matra Program (Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands).
Olha Aivazovska
Nataliia Sokolenko
Oleksandra Matviichuk
Svitlana Kononchuk