No serious incidents which could have affected the outcome of the Oct. 26 parliamentary elections were reported by local election watchdog OPORA, said the group’s head Olga Aivazovska on Oct. 27. Meanwhile, the civic organization reported a 51.2 percent voter turnout.
“Taking into account the events in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, the turnout was pretty high,” Aivazovska said during a news conference. Voter turnout in the 2006 parliamentary election was 58.9 percent, while in 2007 and 2012 it was 57.9 percent, she said.
The highest turnout was in western Ukraine – 59.7 percent. Central Ukraine was slightly less active with 55.1 percent voting, while in southern and eastern parts of the country, it was 42.4 and 41.1 percent, respectively, according to OPORA’s report.
Observers also reported that counting party list ballots was performed better than those with candidates in single-mandate constituencies by 4.8 percent. According to Ukraine’s legislation, 225 members of parliament are elected through party lists and 225 in first past-the-post single-mandate districts.
“The major confrontation remains in single-mandate constituencies,” Aivazovska said. “However, this precedent was laid in the current electoral system. It should be solved by adopting changes (to the law) on the electoral system,” she said
Moreover, there were problems with registering observers and determining the borders in districts 45, 52 and 53 in Donetsk Oblast while in 45, 50, 59, 60 constituencies attempts to cast ballots illegally were reported by OPORA.
“Observers didn’t have the information regarding the number of districts where the voting would be possible till the very last days,” OPORA’s analyst Oleksandr Kliuzhev said. “These problems speak for parliament’s inability to regulate these things.”
The most problematic, according to Aivazovska, was district 45 in the city of Donetsk, where incumbent lawmaker Yukhym Zviagilsky, who voted for the so-called “dictator laws” as a Party of Regions member, is in the lead with more than 72 percent support, according to Central Election Commission. It was, in particular, related to the fact that voting was possible only at four out of 110 polling stations there, she said.
At the same time OPORA welcomed the decision of Central Election Commission not to hold elections in 15 single-mandate constituencies including 41, 42, 43, 44, 51, 54, 55, 56, 61 districts in Donetsk Oblast and 104, 105, 108, 109, 110, 111 constituencies in Luhansk Oblast, which remain under control of terrorists or are not entirely controlled by the Ukrainian army.
“It was an absolutely reasonable decision,” Aivazovska said.
Meanwhile, the results of OPORA’s parallel vote count based on 99.7 percent of votes almost mirror preliminary results of Central Election Commission. Three pro-Western parties, including party of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenuyk’s People’s Front, President Petro Poroshenko’s bloc, and Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi’s Samopomich party are in the lead with 21.9, 21.3 and 10.6 percent, respectively. Passing the five percent threshold are the Opposition, filled with former Party of Regions lawmakers, with 9.6 percent of support, Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko with 7.5 percent and Batkivshchyna Party of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko with 5.6 percent.
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Kyiv Post staff writer Anastasia Forina can be reached at [email protected]
