CVU: New election needed in 7-8 constituencies

  Two weeks were needed for the Central Election Commission to announce the official results of the 28 October parliamentary elections. The process was noticeably protracted in around 10 single-mandate electoral districts where there were influential candidates.  The Committee of Voters of Ukraine [CVU] believes that new elections are needed in that situation.

According to CVU Head, Oleksandr Chernenko, “There were overall more than 20 problematic electoral districts where the vote-count was deliberately drawn out and where flagrant violations were seen not so much at polling stations, as at the district election commissions”.

CVU observers consider that “the results at 7-8 election districts were falsified”. It is at these ones that Mr Chernenko says a new election is needed, since there were infringements at others, but they did not distort the outcome.

As reported, thus far the CEC has only acknowledged the need for a new election at 5 districts: 94 in the Kyiv oblast; 132 in Mykolaiv oblast; 194 and 197 in the Chernihiv oblast and 223 in the Shevchenkivsk district of Kyiv.

CVU experts say that at present there is no legal basis for the re-vote, with it not clear, for example, who appoints the elections.  Mr Chernenko says that either a new law is needed or amendments to the current one.

The elections have been widely criticised as not having met democratic standards.