On July 7, 2013 midterm elections of Member of Parliament in district #224 (Sevastopol city) are to be held. These elections were appointed by the Central Election Commission on March 18. During the day, Civil Network OPORA will conduct civic observation of special elections and actively inform mass media and the public about the course of elections in these cities.

Midterm elections are called in Sevastopol, because the MP of Ukraine Pavlo Liebiediev has terminated his powers when he was appointed on position of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine. On March 22, 2012 the CEC has prematurely terminated powers of Mr. Liebediev on his personal request to terminate his parliamentary powers.

District Election Commission has registered 23 candidates for MP of Ukraine, but 12 of them have later removed their candidacies.

According to the information provided by OPORA observers, the most active election campaigns in Sevastopol are conducted by the following candidates: Vadym Novynskyi, Head of the For Sevastopol Charitable Fund, President of the Sevastopol Futball Club, non-affiliated, billionaire, promises to become a member of the Party of Regions if he wins; Vasyl Parkhomenko, MP of Sevastopol City Council and Leninka Raion Council, First Secretary of Sevastopol City Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine; Dmytro Bilotserkivets, Chairman of executive committee of Sevastopol Without Corruption Civic Movement, assistant to the MP of Ukraine, is supported by the UDAR.

There are 155,000 voters in district #224. 95 polling stations were formed: 88 regular and 7 special. Volodymyr Vasin, who is a representative of the Social and Ecological Party “Union. Chernobyl. Ukraine”, is the Head of District Election Commission of single-mandate election district #224. Oleksandr Miahkyi (UDAR (Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform) of Vitalii Klychko) is the Deputy Head. Tetiana Kuznetsova (All-Ukrainian Political Union United Family) is the Secretary. The other 15 members of the DEC represent the following parties: Slavic Party, Democratic Party of Hungarians of Ukraine, CPU, Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united), People's Initiative, Derzhava, AUU Batkivshchyna, Party of State Neutrality of Ukraine, Ukrainian Cossack Party, Party of Regions, Peasant Party of Ukraine, Civil solidarity, the National Environmental Party.

OPORA's observers will watch the election process in 30 polling stations in Sevastopol and in district election commission. Mobile groups will operatively gather information about possible violations and inform the media about the course of elections.

Civic monitoring conducted by OPORA - is a type of network activity, aimed at impartial assessment of the elections, as well as preventing violations through comprehensive civic action.

For comment, please contact:
Renat Umerov, OPORA's observation coordinator in Sevastopol city at: +38050 538 28 03
Andrii Tokarskyi, OPORA's observation coordinator in Sevastopol city at: +38063 617 96 93
 
Reference: In 2012, during Parliamentary elections in Ukraine, OPORA has carried out a large-scale campaign of long- and short term observation, organized a statistical vote-count by the results of voting with the proportional component of the electoral system on a basis of representative selection. OPORA deployed its observers to all 225 electoral districts, and 3,500 activists had joined them on the voting day. Organization used the latest means of spreading information on observation results, including infographics and interactive maps.