Ukraine has a long tradition of election fraud. And the campaign for this year’s local elections scheduled for Oct. 25 has not been an exception.
While vote-buying is not as widespread as it used to be in previous elections, head of Opora election watchdog Olga Aivazovska said on Oct.2, the age-old practices of bribing voters with cash or gifts and paying to “clone” candidates to steal votes from an opponent are still in use.
Compared with the previous elections, gifts have become less expensive, Aivazovska during the presentation of an interim report by Opora.
For instance, one candidate in Poltava Oblast presented potential voters with canning jar lids with his name printed on packs — a cheap and handy gift during the food preservation season.
Unfortunately, there has also been evidence of cash proposals actively spread through messengers, Aizavovska said. And the price for a vote starts at just Hr 200, or $7.
COVID-19 pandemic has not drastically changed the way of campaigning in the upcoming elections.
The major trend Opora observed is that more local politicians and parties have turned to social media and messengers compared to the 2015 elections.
Regular placement of political advertising on social media, which used to prevail in large cities, is now used by candidates in smaller communities. It allows them to interact with voters remotely, even in rural areas, where campaigning traditionally relied more on international communication but had to adjust to the COVID-19 realities and restrictions, the report reads.
In other cases, politicians have tapped into public concerns and needs during the pandemic.
For instance, a candidate in Sumy has distributed a six-month medical insurance covering COVID-19 treatment. Another candidate in Poltava offered elderly voters free testing for COVID-19.
Monitors registered multiple cases of “campaign charity” when candidates help out hospitals.
Read more: ‘Museum of election trash’ shows history of vote-buying in Ukraine
Clones
Another effective campaign trick that never gets old is using “clone” candidates with identical or resembling names to a stronger opponent. It is also not rare when “clones” associate with popular politicians or register with organizations whose names look like names of leading political parties. Their purpose is to mislead voters, stealing votes from a stronger candidate.
In Zakarpattia Oblast, three men with the last name Medvid are running for mayor of Rakhiv, a town with over 15,000 people. One of them is Viktor Medvid, the head of the Rakhiv state administration, and two others, both named Oleksandr Medvid, are likely to be “clones.”
It will be much harder for voters in Uman where three men named Oleksandr Tsebriy have been registered as candidates for mayor.
One of them is the sitting mayor running for re-election. Two others are not even from Cherkasy Oblast, to which Uman belongs, and changed their last names in summer, Opora monitors reported, which indicates that they could be “clones.” One “clone” even has the same patronymic as Mayor Oleksandr Tsebriy, meaning that the only way for voters to distinguish between them is to pay attention to the party affiliation.
Mayor Tsebriy said he had filed a report to the police accusing the local election commission of fraud after it registered two “clones” but rejected his application citing technical errors. The Central Election Commission eventually overturned the rejection.
“My last name is not very common. (They) created ‘clones’ in two months, changed their names. Those people live in Kirovohrad Oblast under the same address, and they were registered and I was not,” he said on television on Sept. 29.
In Kherson, a lawmaker Ihor Kolykhayev from his party We Will Live Here (Nam Tut Zhyty) is challenged by an independent contender, head of the public organization with the same name, Yuriy Kolykhayev.
On Oct. 2, the Central Election Commission canceled the registration of several “clone” candidates for mayor of Odesa. There were four men named Oleh Filimonov who ran against Oleh Filimonov, a popular stand-up comedian who is running with the Servant of the People party. Two candidates shared the last name with the President Volodymyr Zelensky. And there was Mikheil Saakashvil, a 30-year-old namesake of former Georgian President and Odesa governor.
After consideration, the Central Election Commission decided that their purpose was to “deliberately mislead voters.”
Surprisingly, there are no “clones” of the sitting mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov who is likely to be re-elected.
First arrest
Being elected is every citizen’s right even if one happens to share a name with another candidate. What makes it illegal is receiving money for running for office. However, by the current law, it is not considered a crime.
On Sept. 23, the Security Service of Ukraine detained a candidate for mayor of the city of Svitlovodsk in Kirovohrad Oblast, on suspicion of paying Hr 10,000 ($350) to a “clone” of his opponent in the elections.
Monitors of Opora network identified the suspect as Kostyantyn Kasprov and the “clone” as Andriy Malitsky, who has an identical name to a member of Svitlovodsk city council Andriy Malitsky who is running for mayor with Servant of the People party.
While Kasprov faces punishment of 5 to 7 years in prison, the man he tried to bribe to become a “clone” candidate does not.
“By the law, bribing a candidate is a crime only for a person who pays. A person who changed their last name to stand for election for money isn’t accountable,” Aivazovska said. “We call for the parliament to amend the law and introduce proportional accountability for all sides.”
Opora monitors in Kyiv observed ads offering $1,000 for legally changing one’s name before the elections.
In Uzhgorod, one of the candidates changed his name from Pavlo Slobodyan to Bohdan Andriiv, identical to the name of the sitting mayor who is running for re-election. There is also a third person with the last name Andriiv on the ballot.
