OPORA: Former parliamentary candidates are leaving the country

Viktor Romanyuk

The election watchdog OPORA reports that Viktor Romanyuk who recently stood for election to parliament from the opposition Batkivshchyna Party in the problematical single-mandate electoral district No. 94, has been forced to leave Ukraine.

The tax police have for several days been carrying out a check of the Mako limited liability company which he is a director of. Romanyuk’s lawyer, Mykola Motruk, says that they are dismantling equipment and that three criminal cases have been initiated.

Motruk is in no doubt that the actions constitute politically motivated pressure. He says that Romanyuk is not going to back down and plans to put forward his candidacy at the re-election.

As reported earlier, Romanyuk has applied to the European Court of Human Rights over the decision by District Election Commission No. 94 to invalidate the voting at 27 polling stations on the application of the Party of the Regions candidate Tetyana Zasukha.  Romanyuk believes that this decision violated his right to free elections, Article 3 of the First Protocol to the Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.  Viktor Romanyuk had been clearly in the lead in Election District No. 94 (Obukhiv, Kyiv oblast)), however a court allowed a number of suits from Party of the Regions candidate Tetyana Zasukha.

Another parliamentary candidate from a problematical election district is abroad as well. Arkady Kornatsky represented Batkivshchyna in No. 132.  He however left even before the elections. The accountant of his company has been behind bars since the summer of 2012.

Both of these two districts are among those in which the Central Election Commission has ordered new elections.