Vinnytsia Oblast: Situation at DEC No.14 Remains Tense

In the town of Zhmerynka of Vinnytsia Oblast, at district election commission No.14, there is a situation connected with the change of the DEC's decision after the first determined voting results, based on the submission of representatives of the candidate for People's Deputy in the electoral district No.14 Viktor Zherebniuk (self-nomination).

According to candidate Vikor Zherebniuk, the fact of damage of the containers for transportation of ballots and election documents was established. After that, certain polling stations were recounted, and new result has been established, which has been submitted to the CEC website.

According to the first vote counting, victory of the candidate for Deputy Ivan Melnychuk (All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland) was established, and after the recount, Victor Zherebniuk has become the leader.

At the moment, the court hearing regarding the fact that Ivan Melnychuk has appealed the decision of the commission and establishment of voting results is in progress.

Current situation at the DEC No.14 is tense as there have been reported certain tough actions and groups of unknown persons on the premises of the DEC.

Representatives of the Civil Network OPORA have comments of both parties.

Candidate for People's Deputy in ED No.14 Victor Zherebniuk — “Two days in a row, my team and I were demanding and asking the DEC to consider those violations that were committed during the transportation of ballots. This is what the ten minute video showed — how here, on the pavements, ballots were packed. This is law violation. So we appealed to do the recount for those damaged boxes and at those stations which we think did the delivery with violations. For two days, we were being refused. Only yesterday at 5pm, when the count began, strange things began to happen — for some reason, in the packages of ballots of the opponent mine appeared, the others — in the others, and the damaged ones. All of these were packed and considered legitimate voting. The recount showed all that was falsified, and the result began to even.”

People's Deputy of Ukraine Serhii Pidhornyi — “I arrived here yesterday, around 10pm. Here, the meeting of the district election commission was ongoing, which was trying to take a decision on vote recount at one of the stations. The reason supposedly was the statement of Deputy Head of this precinct commission, who wrote the statement that something was damaged during transportation.  However, it happened so that this very Deputy came to the meeting and informed that she hadn't written any statements, and that it was forgery — when she was shown that statement. The commission had to reverse its decision. However, then, something dishonourable began to happen since already that night, after 5pm, the decision to recount the votes was taken, supposedly on the basis of the complaint of a candidate — candidate Melnychuk's rival. Speaking of the legal aspect, this can't be done. First of all, on Monday 29 October — I don't have exact information but some time in the afternoon — the commission took the decision, adjourned the meeting, and left this building. Then, almost one hundred per cent of the protocols were accepted. Moreover, on the CEC website, data of 97 per cent of the protocols have already been posted so they have already been entered. The winner was Ivan Ivanovych Melnychuk. Then, the commission was to process the rest of the protocols, make a conclusion, and only then finish its work. What happened when no one was here it is hard to predict as the premises were supposedly closed but there are many rooms here, and none of these rooms were checked for strangers. The meeting room also has two rooms; nobody checked if there was anybody there either. Moreover, the door wasn't stamped so I think it was then when those boxes with ballots were opened.