Investigation of more than 75% criminal proceedings related to electoral rights violations committed during the 2014 Early Parliamentary Elections in Ukraine have failed to bring any result. Only 4.5% of criminal proceedings (13 of 291) were sent to trial. Such numbers were revealed by a monitoring of law-enforcement bodies and court institutions, conducted in February–June 2015 by Civil Network OPORA in partnership with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). OPORA calls on MPs to improve electoral legislation and the Criminal Code of Ukraine and the public to secure efficient monitoring of 55 proceedings which are still being under pre-trial investigation.
As of 24 June 2015, only in 13 of 291 criminal proceedings (4.5%) related to voting rights violations pre-trial investigation were completed. In 2 of 13 criminal proceedings, a plea agreement was concluded between a prosecution agency and a defendant.
A number of criminal cases were ceased as a result of inadequate application of the law in practice by investigation bodies after the Law on Strengthening Liability for Voting Rights Violations was adopted (on 14 October 2015).
Today, any criminal proceeding related to voter bribery (there are 37 such proceedings) has led to a charge or a penalty inflicted on persons who organized bribery schemes or persons who was going to benefit from then-planned "bribery pyramids" or "carousels". The number of cases where the guilty were brought to responsibility are rare in comparison with the scale of bribery.
It should be mentioned, however, that 55 criminal proceedings related to voting rights violations remain open. Most of these proceedings were initiated in Donetsk oblast (26), Kyiv oblast (18) and Kyiv city (14).
This press-release was produced with technical assistance from the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and support from the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) and US Agency for International Development (USAID). The views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of IFES, DFATD, or USAID.
Press-service of the Civil Network OPORA
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The Civil Network OPORA - is a non-governmental, non-political and financially independent all-Ukrainian network of activists. We united to enhance public participation in the political process by developing and implementing models of citizen participation in the activities of state and local governments.