Absentee certificates banned by vote of Verkhovna Rada (11/21/04)

Absentee certificates banned by vote of Verkhovna Rada

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada banned the use of absentee certificates in the presidential election run-off, with 236 lawmakers supporting the draft law.

The vote, which came three days before the second round of voting was to take place on November 18, occurred after extensive reports that the abuse of absentee certificates was the leading manner in which the presidential campaign team of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych had ensured that their candidate stayed in the race with his competitor, National Deputy Viktor Yushchenko, in the first round of voting.

Mr. Yushchenko won by half a percent but his campaign officials maintain their candidate would have won outrightly on October 31 had government officials not manipulated the vote.

International and domestic observers have noted that many residents from the eastern regions of Ukraine were bused to the central and western oblasts on October 31 where they voted. The Committee of Ukrainian Voters said that some voted from three to 10 times with the several absentee vote certificates they had been given.

Ukrainian law allows a voter who can show that he will not be able to vote in his electoral precinct to obtain an absentee voter certificate, which allows him to vote at the electoral precinct closest to wherever he finds himself. The absentee certificate does not assign a specific place of voting.

In a news report on Channel 5 television on November 17, a traffic officer from the Ministry of Internal Affairs explained that it was not uncommon for fellow officers to give up their right to vote in elections under duress, by obtaining absentee certificates and surrendering them to their commanders.

The report stated that factory workers and workers in the railroad transportation industry also were under pressure from officials to forfeit their right to vote so that their absentee certificates could be used as authorities wished.

The Committee of Voters of Ukraine issued a statement on November 17 in which it condemned the new attempts to steal the vote and called on Ukrainian citizens to resist the effort.

"The information that the Committee of Ukrainian Voters is receiving on an hourly basis shows that there are extensive instances of pressure on individuals to obtain absentee certificates on a massive scale and surrender them to their supervisors," explained the CVU.

The election watchdog organization noted that in some voting precincts the number of absentee certificates issued had reached 4 percent, the maximum allotted to each voting locale by the Central Election Commission.

It noted that pressure on workers was strongest in the Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Volyn and Ternopil oblasts, where Mr. Yushchenko had received more than three-quarters of the popular vote in the first round.

President Leonid Kuchma must sign the draft bill approved by the Verkhovna Rada into law before it becomes effective. He also could choose to veto it.

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