Lviv: Electoral campaign stuck in the courts

The scandal over the formation of the Lviv Territorial Electoral Commission [TEC] is into its third day. Most political parties In Lviv are demanding that it be changed and have even taken their demands to the Lviv Administrative District Court. The court was due to examine three law suits on Wednesday.

Representatives of around 15 political parties, many those with a national-patriotic leaning issued a joint appeal to the Central Election Commission to change the makeup of the Lviv TEC.

The rightwing VO Svoboda party also blocked the TEC’s work for an hour at the beginning of the week. Local politicians say that they are forced to take such measures because of violations of legislation by the TEC, the secrecy over the formation of precinct electoral commissions [PEC], and approval of commissions with the minimum 18 members, not 24. this could lead to queues on Election Day, and consequently encourage vote-rigging.  They also complain that they have not been told the makeup of the commissions and the lists have still not been published, while some of those appointed as heads and secretaries are aged between 18-22 and have no experience.

A representative of VO Svoboda, V. Pavlyuk reported that the majority of members of all PEC are from the Party of the Regions or other pro-regime parties. There are a lot without Lviv registration. Of 300 candidates for PEC put forward by VO Svoboda, only 40 were chosen.  Hence the law suits lodged by their party, the Christian Democratic Party and “Ukraina Soborna”..  As reported already, few of the City Mayor’s people were included in the PEC and they have also lodged appeals.  Mayor Sadovy says that members of PEC have pressure brought to bear on them and it is unacceptable that 18-year-olds should be chosen as members.

The Party of the Regions rejects such allegations, though the mayoral candidate acknowledges that there may have been some mistakes in the formation of commissions.

The political parties protesting say that they will mount protests and disrupt the elections in Lviv if the court does not order a change in the makeup of the electoral commissions.

From a report at http://radiosvoboda.org/content/article/2195411.html