The mayoral elections in Kryivy Rih, Dnipropetrosk Oblast have been mired in scandal again, as a civil organization reported evidence of vote buying during the re-run of the poll on March 27.
OPORA, a civil society organization that
monitors elections, reported that it had observed two men in a car giving
voters money after they exited from polling station No. 121627, in the city’s Inguletskiy
district.
OPORA observers also reported that candidates were still campaigning on
election day, despite this being illegal under Ukraine’s election law. And voters
in the city have reported receiving text messages telling them to cast their
ballot for certain candidates.
Another independent organisation, the Ukrainian Committee of Voters, also noted
irregularities, saying that that the bussing in of voters to polling stations
on March 27 had a “systematic character.” Most of those seen being bussed
in to vote were pensioners, but the committee said that there were also reports
that workers from the Metinvest factory were also being transported in groups
to vote.
“Such techniques to artificially stimulate voter turnout were also used in
the previous parliamentary and local elections,” the Ukrainian Committee
of Voters said on its Facebook page on March 27.
The provision of these services without charge could count as vote buying,
according to the committee.
Voters in these so-called “special elections” have 15
candidates to choose from. But the front runners look to be the previous mayor,
Yury Vilkul, a former associate of exiled ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, and Semyen
Semenchenko of the Samopomich party.
The city hit the national news headlines last
autumn when thousands of residents protested against the authorities’ decision
not to hold a recount after what many believed was a flawed election.
According to the official results of the mayoral election on Nov. 15, 2015,
Vilkul won with 49.25 percent, while the then Samopomich candidate, Yury Milobog,
received 48.83 percent – a difference of just 752 votes.
Milobog insisted that the Kryviy Rih election commission as well as the Central
Election Commission in Kyiv be replaced, claiming its membership was biased
towards Vilkul. Milobog and his supporters also accused Vilkul’s side of
rigging the vote, using tactics such as ballot stuffing and inclusion of
election commission members on voting lists after the expiry of deadlines, as
well as falsifying the number of hospital voters.
After several tense street protests starting in mid-November, the protesters
took over the city administration building on Nov. 29 and set up self-defense
forces for protection.
The argument continued for months, and saw
the dismissal of several members of the local and central election commissions.
Ukraine’s parliament voted for a re-run of the election on Dec. 23.
Lawmaker Oleksandr Vilkul, a member of
the Opposition Bloc and the son of Yuriy Vilkul, called the parliament’s
decision “chaos, organized by a band of raiders, who just want to seize Kryvyi
Rih.”
OPORA announced at 1200 on March 27 that
the elections have garnered a 23.7 percent turnout so far.
Kyiv
Post staff writer Isobel Koshiw can be reached at [email protected]. Kyiv Post
staff writer Oleg Sukhov contributed to this article. He can be reached at
[email protected]
