In Rivne Oblast Party of Regions Loses Cases on Vote Recount

In the electoral district 156, an agent, without the knowledge of the candidate of the Party of Regions, appealed to court with a request to dismiss without prejudice the claims on vote recount for eight stations. At the same time, in raions of the district, hearings on claims for gross violations of the election law on the election day and during the vote counting continue.

An unexpected turn of events ended the trials of claims on invalidation of the protocols of eight precinct commissions of the electoral district 156. On 30 October, the agent of the candidate of the Party of Regions Andrii Tsyhanenko — Arkadii Kravets appealed to Berezne Raion Court with two claims on serious violations of the election law and a request to invalidate the protocols of vote counting at eight stations of district 156.

At the hearing of the first claim on invalidation of protocols of six PECs, which took place on 31 October at 11am, the agent of the candidate of the Party of Regions failed to appear. Instead, Mr Kravets appealed to the court with a written request to dismiss his claim without prejudice. For the trial of the claim to invalidate two more protocols, which was held at noon, the agent also submitted a written request to dismiss his claim without prejudice. This caused resentment of the candidate of the Party of Regions Andrii Tsyhanenko. The latter personally came to the trial to demand from the judge to consider his claim. Although Arkadii Kravets is the agent of Mr Tsyhanenko, the court judged to dismiss the case without prejudice since the plaintiff was not the candidate himself but this agent.

On the same day, in district 156, several other claims of agents of the candidates from the Party of Regions to invalidate protocols of vote counting of the precinct commission were considered. At 3pm, the trial in Sarny Raion Court was adjourned. The agent of Andrii Tsyhanenko — Oleh Mikhnov — didn't manage to convince the court to invalidate protocols of five PECs. The agent lacked evidence of falsification of the results of citizens' expression of will and non-compliance with the voting procedure. Currently, Sarny Raion Court is considering another claim from an agent of a candidate of the Party of Regions to invalidate the protocols of vote counting.

Let us remind that in the electoral district 156, the representative of the United Opposition Mykola Kucheruk won. After first voting results were published, the official candidate of the Party of Regions Andrii Tsyhanenko tried to achieve cancellation of the results of vote counting at the biggest stations of the district in court and the district commission. One should note that Andrii Tsyhanenko is a dummy candidate of the Party of Regions. According to the CEC results, he gained less than three per cent of the votes while the opposition candidate got 32 per cent. It is most likely that actions of agents of the „regional“ are aimed at protection of interests of another pro-government candidate — acting People's Deputy of the People's Party Mykola Shershun. According to the CEC, he is losing approximately four pre cent of votes to the leader of the race.