The Civil Network OPORA was informed that within the district 207, a violation of the election law was detected. It was a violation of principles of the parliamentary election in Ukraine regarding equal and direct election right (according to Article 3, Section 4 of the Law of Ukraine On Election of People's Deputies, all candidates for People’s Deputy of Ukraine shall have equal rights and opportunities to participate in the election process).
Indeed, according to the election law in force, funds of the state budget provide for production of information posters which contain the biography of a candidate for Deputy and his election programme.
According to Paragraph 3 of the Procedure for Production of Information Posters of Candidates for People's Deputies of Ukraine, the said information posters shall be printed in the same font for all the candidates for Deputy registered in a single-member election district.
However, the information poster of one of the candidates for People's Deputy in the district 207 — a self-nominated candidate Ihor Rybakov is printed in a much bigger font than all the others.
This fact caused several appeals to court by representatives of another candidate of this district — a self-nominated candidate Valeriia Matiukha. Two claims on this violation Chernihiv District Administrative Court dismisses without prejudice due to the missed deadline of appeal to court; the appeal wasn't successful either.
It is worth mentioning that despite the refusal of court, the DEC acknowledged the fact of violation and explained that the DEC is neither required nor able to control the quality of printing. And that the guilty party is the private company which produced the said posters. And this company will print another issue of posters in the amount of 2,000 pcs. According to Deputy Head of the DEC and the lawyer, in a few days, new posters will be printed and placed at the stations. Now, on the premises of the DEC, there are information posters produced with violations of the election law.
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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 is carrying out a large-scale campaign of long- and short term observation, organizing 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.