Pro-presidential candidate Serhiy Berezenko leads by a margin of more than 11 percent with more than 96 percent of the votes counted in a parliamentary by-election in Chernihiv. The front runner has nearly 36 percent of the vote, according to the Central Election Commission, while almost 15 of votes cast are for Hennadiy Korban of the populist, patriotic Ukrop party.
Like
many elections in Ukraine’s cut-throat political system, the race served up a standard
fare of allegations that included dirty tricks, vote buying and count rigging in
the single-mandate district.
The
voter turnout was 35 percent versus 55.9 percent during the parliamentary
elections in October.
Attention
in the run up to the July 26 vote had focused on front-runners Berezenko and Korban, with analysts dubbing the campaign a proxy political
battle between President Petro Poroshenko and the dismissed ex-governor of Dnipropetrovsk
Oblast and business tycoon Ihor
Kolomoisky. Korban, a Dnipropetrovsk native,
served as that region’s deputy governor under Kolomoisky,
and is widely seen as a close ally of the businessman. The Ukrop party was founded in June.
Both candidates accused each other of vote buying in this northern
Ukrainian city of 300,000 people. Ahead of polling, a charity that appeared to be affiliated with Ukrop distributed food packages, including the Ukrainian staple
buckwheat, according to Ukrainian media reports.
Korban, in turn, claimed to have evidence
of vote buying in Berezenko’s camp. He also said that his team had found weapons in a car
belonging to Berezenko’s team. On election day, Ukrainian television news
reported that groups of men with athletic physiques were seen outside several
polling stations, prompting claims by election watchdog Committee of Voters of
Ukraine that the men might be trying to influence voters.
The Central
Election Commission said that no major incidents had been recorded on election
day, while the Interior Ministry said after the polls closed that it had
recorded 50 incidents connected to the election. The ministry also reported early on
July 26 that following a tip off, police on July 25 seized a package containing
130 silicon stamps similar to official polling station stamps. As the vote
count wound down on July 27, the Interior Ministry said it had opened 19
criminal cases connected to the elections, of which eight concerned vote
buying, and nine – the use of deliberately forged documents.
Voters
faced a bewildering array of candidates vying to represent Ukraine’s 205th
parliamentary constituency, with 91 names appearing on the ballot that was over
a meter long.
Apart from Berezenko and Korban, candidates from
the rightist-populist Svoboda party, the civic initiative Democratic Alliance and
the reformist Samopomich party were among the prominent contenders. The leading
candidates were heavily backed by the presence in Chernihiv of party
representatives brought in from Kyiv.
Berezenko’s election office declared him the winner based on the official
vote count. Korban, however, claimed to have won the vote and that the official
results had been manipulated. He said he had a 5 percent lead over Berezenko in a
parallel vote count performed by his team.
Exit polls results varied widely, with the Socis Center for Social and Marketing
Research showing Berezenko as the winner with 31 percent, while a poll by New Image
Marketing Group, which was ordered by Ukrop, had Korban in the lead with 33
percent.
|
Exit polls and vote count results in the Chernihiv by-election |
Ihor Andreychenko
Democratic Alliance |
Serhiy Berezenko
Petro Poroshenko Bloc |
Hennadiy Korban Ukrainian Union of Patrots – Ukrop |
Andriy Mischenko All Ukrainian Union – Svoboda |
| Dobrochyn (local) | 5 | 15 | 23 | 5 |
| New Image marketing Group
(Ukrop) |
8 | 23 | 33 | 6 |
| Socis, (Committee of voters of Ukraine) | 9 | 31 | 17 | 10 |
| Central Election Commission, 96 percent counted | 36 | 15 |
No international monitors were present to oversee the
by-election.Past allegations of fraud
in the counting and registration of elections results have led to widespread distrust
in Ukraine in official election figures, heightening the importance of exit
polls.
The single mandate seat in representing the
constituency became vacant in March when Valeriy Kulich,
who won the seat in October, but was subsequently appointed governor of Chernihiv
Oblast. Ukrainian
legislation doesn’t allow officials to simultaneously hold elected and
appointed positions.
Kyiv Post staff writer
Johannes Wamberg Andersen can be reached at [email protected].
