Editor’s Note: The following is a joint statement issued on Nov. 2 by ten opposition parties in reference to the Oct. 31 regional elections. It was signed by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna party, the Reform and Order Party, the People’s Movement of Ukraine (Rukh), People’s Self-Defense, the The Motherland Defenders Party, The Ukrainian Platform Party, The Civil Position Party, The Ukrainian Republican Party “Sobor,” the “For Ukraine” Party as well as the United Center party.
The local elections that took place on Oct. 31 were neither democratic, nor free. They do not conform to the generally accepted European standards, and their results are deliberately disfigured.
Today, it is already obvious that the official election results will have nothing to do with the real mood of the people, nor reflect their real choice. The vote-rigging in Ukraine has been a long process that has embraced every stage of the election campaign.
The new government began the erosion of democracy with the elimination of elections and then attacked a major component of the democratic process by curtailing the freedom of speech in all its manifestations. As a result, the international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders downgraded Ukraine by 42 places in its 2010 annual index of media freedom. There is no need to add anything. All opposition forces were discriminated in their right to be present in the national and many regional media. The main reason behind the situation is that total control of the mass media by the clan groups in the President’s circle. The people’s understanding of the real situation in the country, in all spheres of life, is deliberately and significantly distorted because of the manipulation of the media.
The violations that give us grounds to conclude that the elections were biased and undemocratic arose before the election campaign with the unlawful postponement of the elections, which, according to the Constitution, should have been held in May. Today it is obvious that the postponement of the voting date was driven by the desire to finalize the formation of administrative resources, to take control over law-enforcement structures, subordinate the judicial system and to rewrite the legislation to satisfy the needs of the Party of Regions and its allies.
The adoption of the Law on Elections of Deputies of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Local Councils and Villages, Town and City Heads was the next stage in the process for systemic vote-rigging. It was designed in the interests of the Party of Regions that acted under the principle of “playing with rules” rather than “playing by the rules.” The Law facilitated the flagrant disproportional representation of the composition of the territorial and district election commissions. In practice, it permitted the President to grab control of the territorial election commissions and their heads, and form exclusive district election commissions that became a major element in facilitating vote-rigging. The completely subordinated law-enforcement agencies provided a mechanism for protecting vote-rigging facilitated by the commissions at different levels.
With the Law on Local Elections, the Party of Regions deliberately prohibited party blocs from taking part in the electoral process two months before the elections. It was a conscious act of discrimination against the largest opposition force, BYuT (the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko). Due to the short period of time available before the elections, and because of the deliberate blackout of party information in the national media, it was impossible to inform all of Ukraine’s citizens about the change of name of the largest opposition force.
In the elections, the government used a new technique for vote-rigging: the creation of bogus opposition party organizations. This was realized at President’s order by the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior, and by the subordinated courts and territorial election commissions.
In the night before polling day, the illegality of the bogus Batkivshchyna party organizations was proved in courts, but it changed nothing. As a result, the largest opposition party Batkivshchyna and other opposition forces were effectively barred from running in Kyiv, Lviv, Kirovograd, Ternopil and some other regions. Thus, millions of citizens were deprived of their right to choose.
Furthermore, for the first time in the history of Ukraine’s independence, the mass printing of false ballot-papers was organized throughout the country.
According to Part 2 of Article 66 of the Law on Local Elections, ballot-papers are limited-issue documents. Paragraph 17, Article 9 of the Law on Licensing of Certain Types of Economic Activity clearly states that the production of securities and limited-issue documents is subject to obligatory licensing. The ballot-papers were printed at 487 printing houses. However, the web-site of the Ministry of Finance confirms that only 4 of 487 printing houses had licenses, which is less than 1 percent of the total amount. The ballot papers were produced without sufficient control and protection, as provided by the Law. This was proved when representatives of different parties and international observers discovered large batches of false ballot-papers in different regions (Kharkiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Khmelnytskiy, Odessa) several days prior to the elections. It leaves no doubt that the technique was used nationwide. Ukraine’s law-enforcement agencies instead of putting an end to the process, took it under their control. The opposition has the evidential matters and video-tapes confirming this large-scale crime.
The campaign itself was marked by strong pressure applied to the opposition parties, their candidates and representatives in election commissions. The most wide-spread trick against undesirable candidates was intimidation of election participants by the law-enforcement agencies, and threats to those opposition candidates working in the state sector (doctors, teachers, functionaries) to deprive them of their jobs. In some towns, there were cases of the authorized detention of mayoral candidates who had a good chance to defeat the Party of Regions’ candidates. In many cases, opposition candidates were pulled out of the electoral race as a result of decisions made by commissions that had an overall majority of government representatives. In general, over two thousand of candidates for deputies, candidates to village, town and city heads were barred from participating in the elections because of repressions by the law-enforcement agencies, or as a result of ordered court decisions, or illegal actions by the subordinated territorial election commissions. Some regional political parties were barred from participation in the elections in the same way, only because they had a good chance to be elected to local councils as a counter to the ruling party. We have the detailed lists of all candidates and parties illegally deprived of their right to participate in the elections, as well as the illegal court decisions that formalized this lawlessness. We are going to publish them.
The abuse of home voting, without proper cause, was also wide-spread. It is an instrument of vote-rigging in Ukraine that first emerged before 2004, and which has now been restored by the government. In some regions, the number of people voting at home sharply increased even in comparison to the second round of the presidential elections 2004.
One could only describe the local elections as “fair and democratic” if unduly biased or in an information vacuum.
The organization of voting on Election Day and after deserves separate assessment. By 10 a.m. on November 2, there is no official information published on the turnout. This is again indicative of the vote-rigging taking place at full pelt all over the country at the level of uncontrolled district and territorial election commissions. In all previous elections there were no such violations.
The opposition forces have thousands of evidential reports drawn up in accordance with Ukrainian legislation. They confirm the availability of final protocols in the commissions, with or without signatures, filled in before the election campaign started; numerous cases of excessive ballot-papers at polling stations; and the stuffing of ballot-papers into ballot-boxes or them being thrown onto the tables for vote counting after the voting was over. All these abuses were taking place simultaneously with the closing of district and territorial election commissions to escape the control of the election observers and the media. In some instances, the latter were removed from polling stations by unidentified persons of criminal appearance.
The current government has put an end to the tradition of fair elections established after the Orange Revolution. It is rolling back democracy in Ukraine and, in the process, is consciously dismantling the mechanism of free and fair elections which it will replace with regular farces offering a foregone result.
We consider these elections to be unfair, and held with mass and systemic vote-rigging which violates the fundamental rights of Ukraine’s citizens for free choice. 59 percent of citizens agree with us, according to an IFES survey, they consider the elections rigged and that is why they did not vote.
According to the same survey, only 8.5 percent of citizens think that the elections are fair. Ukrainian society has passed its verdict.
These local elections are training for, and the trial of systemic vote-rigging to be used during the next parliamentary and presidential elections. If we, Ukrainian and international forces, do not take action now at this early stage, the government will take it as carte-blanche for further attacks against democracy, human rights and freedoms; and for the establishment of authoritarian rule in Ukraine. A rule that is alien both to Ukraine’s people and the whole of Europe.
