The early mayoral elections in Kryvy Rih "did not correspond to any standards of fair and democratic elections, nor the slightest notion of the rule of law," Director General of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU) Oleksiy Koshelev said on the air of Channel 5.
“In fact, we have seen the election by the standards of the regime of Viktor Yanukovych with schemes of large-scale bribery, the use of administrative resources and other violations of the law,” the committee quoted Koshel as saying on its Facebook page.
According to him, on the day of voting in Kryvy Rih, the voter turnout was artificially increased by at least 25 percent. This was done through bringing 70,000 to 80,000 voters to the polling stations. These were mostly elderly people, who during the campaign received payments of Hr 500, each, from the city authorities. These people were brought by the structures close to the local authorities and the mining and processing plants of the Metinvest Group, Koshel said.
