Deputies of the Lutsk city council are worried that the upcoming Parliamentary elections will be unfair and nontransparent, are reporting about the abuse of administrative resource and demand to stop similar incidents.
It was reported today, on 25 July, on the 29th session of Lutsk city council.
Thus, deputies Serhii Hryhorenko and Andrii Osipov (members of the faction All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland) submitted parliamentary inquiries, concerning the abuse of administrative resource in favor of potential candidates by officials of Lutsk city council, chairmen of communal enterprises and healthcare institutions.
Serhii Hryhorenko stated in his inquiry that he received unconfirmed information about some incidents of propaganda for a certain candidate by officials in Lutsk In pursuance of the Article 74 of the Law of Ukraine "On Elections of People's Deputies of Ukraine" the deputy appealed to Lutsk city head Mykola Romaniuk asking to conduct a seminar or meeting with his subordinates and employees of other municipal agencies in order to avoid such incidents. The inquiry was supported.
A little broader description was provided by the deputy of Lutsk council Andrii Osipov in his inquiry. He informed in it that the Mayor of his deputies publicly demonstrate their sympathy to the certain potential candidates. "According to numerous mass media reports and public appeals, officials of Lutsk city council, chairmen of communal institutions, secondary schools, were noticed on a number of public events, advertising campaigns etc. In particular, Lutsk Mayor and his deputies. They must understand, that Lutsk citizens chose Mayor not for advertising candidates for MPs of Ukraine, shared their authority or used the administrative resource in somebodies favor." - was written in the inquiry. The deputy appealed to prosecution services to conduct a comprehensive verification on these facts. The Mayor was asked to hold official meeting and issue an order on implementation of severe control over the employees of Lutsk city council concerning expression of sympathy with the potential candidates for MPs of Ukraine, participation in mass public events, showing the open public support, using the official position in order to put employees of communal enterprises, institutions, educational establishments, under the pressure.
The inquiry was signed by 14 deputies of Lutsk city council. However, despite the inquiry was put to the vote three times, it wasn't supported.
In the second appeal, Andrii Osipov informed about his worries concerning the abuse of administrative resource on the upcoming elections, and noted that he was forced to campaigning for the Party of Regions. He also informed that one teacher of the secondary school in Volyn oblast appealed to him. The teacher notified that his chairman forced him to campaign for the Party of Regions due to the order of the head of local administration, and to make a list of people who will vote for this party.
The deputy was afraid that similar abuse of the administrative resource may happen in Lutsk, and asked the Attorney of Volyn Oblast to conduct investigation on the use of official position by heads of local state administrations and chairmen of educational establishments in order to put employees of communal enterprises, institutions and educational establishments under the pressure. He also asked the Lutsk Mayor to implement better control over employees of Lutsk City Council on 2012 Parliamentary elections.
The head of Volyn oblast branch of the Party of Regions, the deputy head of Volyn oblast council, Oleksandr Bashkalenko, responded to statements of the deputy by refuting his accusations. "We have never forced anyone to do something." - Said Mr. Bashkalenko.
Civic monitoring conducted by OPORA - is a type of network activity, aimed at impartial assessment of the preparation and conduct of elections, as well as preventing violations through comprehensive civic action. Professional monitoring at all stages of the election process indirectly influences the quality of the campaign. The public opinion, both foreign and domestic is formed through gathering and spreading of information among the target audience. From a strategic perspective public monitoring of elections focuses upon improving the system and certain procedures. In 2012, during Parliamentary elections in Ukraine OPORA implements a large-scale campaign of long- and short term observation, organizes a statistical vote-count by the results of voting with the proportional component of the electoral system on a basis of representative selection, will provide 100% coverage of polling stations by observers in separate single-mandate majoritarian districts. OPORA observers will work in all 225 electoral districts, and 3,500 activists will join them on the voting day. Organization will use the latest means of spreading information on observation results, including infographics and interactive maps.