Oleksandr Yefremov, head of the Party of Regions political faction, managed to sabotage the sensor button in parliament on Feb. 15 during a test of the voting system that was supposed to demonstrate that the system is ready for use and will make the process more transparent. Yefremov pushed his cell phone against the button instead of his finger, and the electronic system accepted it as a legitimate vote. Arseniy Yatseniuk, head of BYuT-Batkivshchyna faction, who was the proponent of installing this button in the first place, and is a great campaigner for activating it, was outraged. He said that the ruling party is ready to sabotage anything to continue mass voting, which has been nicknamed as “piano-playing” and “button-pushing.” Ukraine’s parliament has been gridlocked for the past two weeks because the opposition continues to demand that all deputies should vote in person, as required by the constitution. The Party of Regions, however, has been resisting the pressure.
