Among other documents in office of the Party of Regions, OPORA's activists have found papers proving possible violations of electoral legislation during 2012 Parliamentary elections. Such possible violations are: abuse of administrative resource; fulfillment of party duties during public service; indirect bribery of voters; the use of "technical” parties by the Party of Regions in order to form majority in election commissions; the use, processing, and storage of personal data of voters.
On March 12, a press-conference was held in the Ukrainian People's House, on which activists of Chernivtsi office of Civil Network OPORA have promulgated a number of documents, found in Chernivtsi office of the Party of Regions. Members of Chernivtsi Oblast Council have received access to the documents. More than 1000 documents were processed during a week. Some of them contain proofs of possible violations of electoral legislation during 2012 Parliamentary elections.
Follow the links below to see documents from office of the PR, promulgated during the press-conference: http://bit.ly/1oL8RPD
OPORA's activist Hryhorii Sorochan, who participated in procession of the documents, has told about revealed documents, proving the use of administrative resource. In particular, these documents are: party reports on 2012 election results in every raion; reports on activities of Heads of Raion State Administrations, Reports on participation of MP candidates in planned events in districts etc. Besides that, the documents contain information about RSA and Raion Council officials were also heads of election headquarters and campaigns. In particular, in Vyzhnytsia, Storozhynets, and Kitsman raions. We remind that, according to OPORA's data, administrative resource has taken the first place in violations rating, created on the basis of violations, committed by candidates and political parties during 2012 Parliamentary election campaign.
Besides that, activists have found expense records in office of the Party of Regions, proving purchase of food packages for the 9th of May and the Mother's Day/ In particular, according to the documents, more than 13,000 presents costing over 1,200.00 UAH were procured by the PR for the 9th of May. As OPORA has already mentioned in 2012, and according to explanations given by the CEC (Resolution #76 4/23/2012) and the effective legislation, "election campaigning which includes payments to the voters, establishments, institutions, organizations, election commissions and their members, or free or promotional goods, services, works, securities, loans, lottery tickets, other material values, accompanied by calls or suggestions to vote or not to vote for the certain political party, candidate for MP of Ukraine, or mentioning name of the certain candidate or party, is an indirect voter bribery.” While in 2012 we knew only about the fact of indirect voter bribery, today we have information about the budget of this campaign in Chernivtsi oblast thanks to revealed documents.
OPORA's activist Vladyslav Baranskyi has told how the Party of Regions used "technical” parties to form majority in election commissions in Chernivtsi oblast. Thus, an order was found among documents, in which Chernivtsi regional election headquarters asked chairmen of city and raion election headquarters to include members of 20 different parties to election commissions. According to the records about members of election commissions in Chernivtsi oblast, which were among documents in office of the Party of Regions, 60.7% members of precinct election commissions (PECs) were "men of the PR'. By the way, according to the general cost estimate for 2012 election campaign of the PR, allowance for such an "army" of PEC members was more than 7.5 million UAH, while the average monthly budget was 9.4 million UAH.
Yet in 2012, OPORA's calculations showed that a half of substitutions in district election commissions in Chernivtsi oblast were related to a political grounds related to the Party of Regions. Unfortunately, the documents proving that the PR has received majority in both precinct and district election commissions through "technical" parties, OPORA has received only today. As it's known today, according to the documents found in 4 District Election Commissions (DECs), members of the PR have themselves indicated the "number of their members" – 48 people. However, according to the information available on the site of the Central Election Commission, there were only 4 members of the DEC from the PR (one in every DEC).
Journalist Nadiia Babynska, who was also processing documents of the PR, told about the use and storage of personal data. Among documents, folders were found containing personal data of people living in Chernivtsi oblast, sorted by polling stations where they should vote. Besides that, the documents contained information about social status of citizens (veteran, disabled person etc.). According to the Law of Ukraine on the Protection of Personal Data, personal data is information or set of information about a physical person, which is identified or can be specifically identified. According to the Article 16 of the Law, the procedure for gaining access to personal data of third persons is determined in accordance with conditions on which personal data was provided by a subject to process it, or according to the corresponding law requirements. Thus, OPORA will file the corresponding appeal to the Authorised Human Rights Representative of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine responsible for personal data protection, asking to explain whether such use of personal data by oblast office of the PR was legitimate.
Nadiia Babynska has also told about a finding, which proves that members of the PR conducted their party activities while being on public service. Thus, according to a time sheet of the Party of Region's headquarters in Chernivtsi oblast, then-Head of Chernivtsi OSA, Mykhailo Papiev, was working as a manager of election campaign since July 2012, as well as the Head of Chernivtsi Oblast Council, Mykhailo Hainycher – as a manager of regional headquarters. They were working 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. Whether these working hours concurred with being on duty as state officials, or during night hours - is unknown. However, Mykhailo Papiev, while being the manager of regional election campaign, has said himself the following: "Participants of the election process, who are holding state positions, may be involved in electoral process only in free time, on weekends, or go on vacations for this period. Participation in election campaign while being on public service is unacceptable."
The documents revealed information, which proved one more time OPORA's summary of 2012 observation campaign. These materials should be processed by representatives of law-enforcement bodies with the following proper legal assessment.