KRYVYI RIH, Ukraine - Demonstrators protesting voting fraud in the city of Kryvyi Rih in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast on Nov. 29 took over the first floor of City Hall and created a self-defense unit to protect it.
The protesters’ actions were reminiscent of those during the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution, when demonstrators opposed to then-President Viktor Yanukovych seized administrative buildings all over the country.
The Kryvyi Rih protesters’ wrath was triggered by authorities’ refusal to recount votes in the controversial Nov. 15 mayoral run-off election.
According to the official results, incumbent Mayor Yury Vilkul, a former ally of Yanukovych, won with 49.25 percent, while Yury Milobog from the pro-European Samopomich Party got 48.83 percent – a difference of just 752 votes.
Milobog and his supporters have presented evidence of vote rigging. Police have opened a criminal investigation into alleged voting fraud.
The uproar on Nov. 29 began after about 3,000 demonstrators held a rally against voting fraud in front of City Hall in Kryvyi Rih. The protest was attended by Samopomich MPs Yegor Sobolev and Semen Semenchenko and Volodymyr Parasyuk, an independent member of the Verkhovna Rada.
Some protesters subsequently entered the City Hall building and set up anti-Vilkul posters and Ukrainian flags on the first floor.
City Hall was protected by several hundred police officers. Their commander said using a loudspeaker that the demonstrators were not allowed to enter the building, and minor scuffles with the police broke out when protesters pushed through the doors.
Overall, however, police offered little resistance to the takeover of City Hall’s first floor by the protesters. Most police took no action, and instead stood lined up along the building’s internal walls, protecting elevator doors and the stairs leading to the second floor.
Some protesters acted as guards at the building’s doors, replacing police officers. These included fighters of the Donbas volunteer battalion and Georgian volunteers fighting for Ukraine.
Demonstrators created the Community Watch – a unit similar to self-defense forces that were active during the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution.
Sobolev said at the rally that the purpose of the Community Watch would be to help the police to “protect public order and to prevent theft at the City Hall building when illegitimate, falsified and fake representatives of the community are present there.”
The protesters also created an anti-corruption commission and the Council of Community Representatives, which Sobolev said would be Kryvyi Rih’s representative body during the transition period before the election of legitimate authorities.
Tables were set up at City Hall for applicants to sign up for the Community Watch, the Council of Community Representatives and the anti-corruption commission.
The unrest followed Milobog supporters’ efforts to dispute Vilkul’s victory in court.
The Dnipropetrovsk Administrative District Court and Dnipropetrovsk Administrative Court of Appeals have rejected Milobog’s complaints – a fact which Vilkul’s opponents say proves that the unreformed court system is unable and unwilling to deliver justice.
Meanwhile, the Verkhovna Rada on Nov. 26 created a commission to investigate vote rigging in the Kryvyi Rih mayoral election. Its members are expected to visit the city on Nov. 30.
Despite setbacks, Milobog supporters can claim one victory: the Central Election Commission has replaced representatives of Baktyvshchyna, the People’s Front, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and the Radical Party at the Kryvyi Rih commission, according to Sobolev. The parties applied to replace their representatives because they supported Vilkul and were accused of selling out to him.
Representatives of the same parties at Kryvyi Rih’s city council have also backed Vilkul, prompting voters to question their legitimacy and forcing Batkyvshchyna and the Radical Party to expel leaders of their local branches.
Another demand voiced by Sobolev is to replace members of the Central Election Commission, which has confirmed Vilkul’s election as mayor.
The powers of 12 of the commission’s 15 members, including its Chairman Mikhailo Okhendovsky, an ex-ally of Yanukovych, expired in June 2014 but President Petro Poroshenko has failed to replace them.
Over the past week, all parties have submitted their candidacies for the Central Election Commission but Poroshenko is still refusing to replace the members, according to Sobolev.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected]m.
