On May 26, during the press-conference in Mykolaiv, representatives of the Civil Network OPORA have presented the summary of election observation campaign during Presidential Elections in Ukraine. In particular, they aired the voter turnout and voting results based on the statistically-based quick count while focusing on the national and local peculiarities.
According to theElectoral Programs Coordinator of the Civil Network OPORA in Mykolaiv oblast Olena Kabashna, violations, which were reported during the election day were not systematical, and usually concerned organization of DECs. "However, it's easy to understand the commissions: if 2.5 thousand people vote at polls, where only 11 commission members are working, it will be extremely difficult to secure due functioning. Sometimes, even Commission Heads helped to hand out the ballots, because there was a lack of hands. We all should thank to our fellow countrymen, who worked in commissions, and to those who come to vote, despite this process often took over 30-40 minutes. Thanks to them, the elections were held," – Olena Kabashna said.
Besides that, O. Kabashna drew attention to complaints concerning the voter lists, when the whole apartment buildings couldn't participate in the voting. Civil Network OPORA asked commission heads to explain the situation, but they only ascertained the problems in functioning of registers, and could explain the reasons.
As for the gross violations in Mykolaiv oblast, there were false provocative "minings" in schools, where polls were located (4 schools, where 9 polling stations were located, were "mined"). Besides that, there was a conflict in the PEC #480752 (district #129), when the observer from the Democratic Alliance party fired tear gas at polls after the conflict with members of PEC and other observers (OPORA has already written about this).
OPORA's activists have also presented the voter turnout at polling stations in Mykolaiv oblast. OPORA's observers were worried about the voter turnout. According to O. Kabashna, citizens of Mykolaiv oblast are quite active, but such low turnout (49.6 %) is due to the fact that the electorate of the Party of Regions didn't manage to choose "their" candidate. Another factor that influenced the voter turnout is dissemination of leaflets, which appeared on the eve of the election day, calling to boycott the elections, and containing threats to members of election commissions.
Besides that, OPORA's observers have noticed that militia officers were behaving more strictly than usually. Observers have made a conclusion, that law-enforcement officers wanted to secure the safety so much, that they sometimes even overstepped the limits of electoral legislation. For example, in the night before 25 May in village of Kovalivka, a militia officer has hidden the signboard of PEC, just in case. At the polling station in Varvarivka microdistrict, a militia officer has copied the personal data of an Americal diplomat, who had the identification certificate of the CEC, and made him quite angry with such actions.
In general, Civil Network OPORA is convinced that elections in Mykolaiv oblast were conducted democratically, fairly, transparently, and without the use of administrative resource.
Reference:
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 electoral violations through comprehensive civic action.
Since March, OPORA conducts a wide observation campaign during snap Presidential election, interim Parliamentary elections (district #83), and special local elections. The organization cooperates with 175 long-term observers, who are watching the course of election campaign in all Ukrainian regions. On the Election Day on May 25, 3,000 activists will join them to conduct the parallel vote tabulation, based on statistical sample.