Election campaign in Krivoy Rog
The local headquarters of candidate to Presidents post Viktor Yanukovich are located in the administrative building of the enterprise “Krivbaspromvodopostachannia”.
On the eve of V. Yanukovichs visit to the town, the publicity department of the town executive committee appealed to the firms, which specialized on the creation and placement of outdoor advertisement, and proposed them to conclude the agreement for placement of the pre-election agitation of V. Yanukovich. Representatives of the firms had to put signatures and stamps on the blank forms of the agreement, which would be, allegedly, filled and signed in Kyiv, in the headquarters of the Prime Minister. The prices for placement of the advertisement were several times less that the sums, which are paid by the firms for use of the land under the big-boards. However, on 7 August the big-boards were mounted throughout the town.
In the end of August, after the conduction of the Forum of democratic forces, which supported V. Yanukovich, deputy head of the town organization of the National Democratic Party Anatoliy Kornik had a conversation with a correspondent of the newspaper “Vestnik Krivbassa”. The correspondent said: “We know about the enormous quantity of facts, when teachers, recalled from leaves, were made to collect signatures in the support of V. Yanukovich, and when state officials carried out the agitation for the candidate from power”. Mr. Kornik even did not deny this statement, he only said: “we are against such practices, but it is impossible to exclude completely the influence of administrative resource on the election campaign. This is true not only for us”.
On 2 August the town prosecutors office, jointly with the special militia squad “Berkut”, during eight hours searched the reception office of the headquarters of candidate Oleksandr Moroz in the 32nd electoral district. In the course of the search a digital photo camera was snatched out from the hands of journalist S. Zinchenko, and the flash-card from this camera with 10 shots was passed to the prosecutors office. Besides, journalist S. Zinchenko turned to law-enforcing organs with the complaint. The journalist insists that, during his meeting with P. Chakin, the head of the election headquarters of candidate V. Yanukovich, the latter not only impeded the journalist to fulfill his professional duty, but also inflicted him a material damage – knocked out a dictaphone from journalists hands, and the dictaphone fell down on the floor and broke.