today 20.05.2013 19:21
(by Kyiv time) navigation |
|
 |
Human Rights in Ukraine Information website of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group |
 |
 |
 |
Óêðà¿íñüêà | Ðóññêèé | English |
Five months after the parliamentary elections resulted in the Central Election Commission stating that it could not determine the results in certain single-mandate electoral districts, the re-runs have still not been scheduled 
The following is an updated report on the latest of many moves which have undermined the will of the voters, with 40 members of the Cherkasy City Council voting to oust the elected Mayor, Serhiy Odarych 
In the last week two Ukrainian administrative courts have rejected civil suits brought by private claimants from Donetsk. The refusal to strip another opposition MP, Yury Odarchenko, of his mandate was unexpected, but entirely constitutional. The other was neither 
Ukrainian parties have to fill out annual income declarations but when and where these are published is up to them, and what they report is also scarcely regulated 
The civic network OPORA reports that after receiving control over the majority of parliamentary committees at the end of last year, the Party of the Regions is now seeking to make their advantage even greater 
It was a bad week for democracy in Ukraine – what there was being as close to the real thing as canned laughter on TV shows to genuine mirth 
Attempts to prosecute former opposition parliamentary candidate, Viktor Romanyuk, who was the clear leader until Party of the Regions candidate Zasukha got results in some polling precincts cancelled make any assurances given at the summit seem depressingly empty 
The civic network OPORA has given a pretty damning assessment of the first 100 days of the Verkhovna Rada’s work with the latter term to be understood very loosely since for 53 of the 100 days parliamentarians didn’t work at all. 
The Cherkasy branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine reports that in elections for the Sharin Village Council, the Party of the Regions candidate received 100% of the votes 
The Civic Network OPORA has been monitoring the legislative activity (or otherwise) of current MPs and finds that during February over half took no part in any legislative work 
OPORA has drawn attention to the questionable situation where public funding is allocated to pay MPs substantial amounts for “assistants”, yet the public and media are refused information about who these assistants are 
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 ruling by Ukraine’s High Administrative Court on 8 February which cancelled – as inaccurate - the election results in two single-mandate electoral districts has caused concern and aroused serious criticism. 
Viktor Romanyuk, an opposition Batkivshchyna candidate at the 2012 parliamentary elections has had his application to the European Court of Human Rights declared admissible. He contends the decision of the election commision to invalidate the results at 27 polling stations, before which he had been in the lead, violated his rights 
On the third day of Ukraine’s first ever OSCE chairmanship, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has accused he OSCE Election Mission of political bias in its report on the 28 October Parliamentary Elections. 
As well as the "step backwards" seen in the October elections and the ongoing issue of Tymoshenko and Lutsenko’s imprisonment, the European Parliament resolution adopted on Thursday expresses concern over the "homosexuality" bill as well as reservations on the Law on Referendums 
The conditions for the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement articulated at Monday’s meeting of EU Foreign Ministers were unequivocal, the headlines in the media often worryingly off the mark 
Iryna Bekeshkina, renowned sociologist and Director of the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, says that those in power clearly showed at the parliamentary elections that they cannot play by the rules 
The Final Report of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s election observers is damning, reaching much the same conclusions as almost all other election observers, or “absurd”, if you are a Party of the Regions MP. 
The website is created with assistance of the International Renaissance Foundation and National Endowment for Democracy (USA)
For using of materials from the site, reference to the information source is obligatory