Berkut officers throw people out of disputed Vinnytsa DEC
According to a BYUT MP, Andriy Pavlovsky, on Sunday evening Berkut riot police “cleared out” the premises of District Election Commission No. 11 in Vinnytsa. This was supposedly to air the building, however the few members of the commission left in the hall have now barricaded the entrance to the first floor.
Mr Pavlovsky said that during the day there had been a fight which resulted in parliamentary candidates, international observers and journalists being injured.
As reported earlier in the day, Mykola Knyazhytsky, General Director of TVi reported he and two other people from TVi were set upon by police when they tried to enter the meeting room.
“What they’re doing there we don’t know. We’re not admitted. As soon as we tried to get accreditation for the DEC session, the police turned on me, journalist Lyubomir Ferenets and cameraman Oleksandr Tupik. We were beaten and now we can’t get into the premises”, he said.
On Sunday the CEC reported that 100% of the protocols had been processed and that Oleksandr Dobrovsky had won with 30.16% against the candidate from the United Opposition Natalia Soleiko with 28%.
This was in marked contrast to Saturday morning when 86.36% of the protocols had been processed. Then Soleiko was leading with 25, 497 votes against Dombrovsky’s 24, 828.
Earlier at No. 11 a decision was taken to have a recount, and ballot papers with votes for Soleiko were destroyed.
The Internet publication Ukrainska Pravda asserts that while the police at No. 11 threw out OSCE observers, members of the commission fiddled ballot papers. CEC replaced the head of the DEC, Serhiy Sitarsky who represented the Batkivshchyna Party by a representative of the Russian Bloc Party, Olha Stadnyk.
Members of the opposition asserted on Saturday that members of DEC No. 11 were continuing an illegal vote count and not awaiting the court ruling on this matter.