International observers say elections were free and fair

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine's 2006 parliamentary elections were the most free and fair since the nation gained independence nearly 15 years ago, international observers said.

Instead of dealing with fraud and violence, problems were limited to those of a technical nature, such as polling stations that opened late, voter lists that had incorrect or missing names and long lines to vote, they said.

"The citizens of Ukraine have freed themselves of their fear," said U.S. Federal Judge Bohdan Futey, who visited eight polling stations in Chernihiv and Kyiv.

Having Ukrainian elections since 1990, he noted that the Orange Revolution had created the conditions for Ukraine's first truly democratic elections. "There's no more fear, and they approached these elections very realistically and calmly," Judge Futey said. "Without fear, they'll have success."

The successful parliamentary elections were a critical step for Ukraine in demonstrating it is a country that holds democratic values and is capable of upholding Western standards of democracy, observers said.

"In our view, Ukraine has proved itself up to the task," said Michael Trend, a former member of the British Parliament who led the International Republican Institute's election observation team. "All freedom-loving people will recognize these elections as a success for Ukraine," he added.

Mr. Trend said he couldn't comment on how the elections might influence Ukraine's aspirations for European Union membership.

Ukraine's political leaders didn't have the same high praise for their elections as Western observers.

Holding what she charged was an improperly completed protocol sheet in her hands, Yulia Tymoshenko told a March 29 press conference that her campaign staff had collected and documented numerous examples of fraud committed at various district election commissions.

As expected, voting recounts were demanded by the leaders of those parties and blocs that failed to break the 3 percent barrier for the Verkhovna Rada.

Among these were Volodymyr Lytvyn's People's Bloc, the Pora-Reforms and Order Bloc, the National Democratic Party and the Viche Party.

"[We] acknowledge the election process as timely and democratic," said Vladyslav Kaskiv, leader of the Pora Civic Party who announced his resignation after the elections.

"We are not asking to repeat the elections in any way. The issue is the lawful, timely and transparent procedure of recounting the votes to determine the election's results," he said.

Meanwhile, local elections suffered numerous problems throughout the country.

Anatolii Symonenko, the winner of the mayor's race in the village of Myrne in Crimea, was attacked the day before Election Day. His injuries were so severe that he died on March 28.

He belonged to the Ukrainian Republican Party, which joined with the Ne Tak! Bloc. Police offered no information about who his attackers might have been.

Another violent scandal erupted in Zhytomyr. Mayoral candidate Viktor Rozvadovskyi of Lytvyn's People's Bloc was widely known to give out presents while campaigning, in violation of election laws.

On March 18, Our Ukraine activist Volodymyr Zubrytskyi attended a meeting with Mr. Rozvadovskyi, during which he videotaped the candidate giving out gifts, the Oglyadach Information Agency reported. (http://www.oglyadach.com)

When Mr. Rozvadovskyi found out about the video, he had two guards attack Mr. Zubrytskyi. They shoved him into a jeep, seized his video camera and then savagely beat him as they drove to a building, where he was beaten again, according to Mr. Zubrytsky.

Soon afterwards, the security chief of Lytvyn's People's Bloc, Valerii Nonyk, drove Mr. Zubrytskyi to a hospital, the victim said. Along the way, Mr. Nonyk advised Mr. Zubrytskyi to tell doctors he suffered his injuries as a result of a fall.

Mr. Zubrytskyi suffered trauma to his skull and brain, a broken nose and broken ribs, a doctor told the Oglyadach Information Agency.

Sevastopol nullified the results of its mayoral election after a judge ruled on election day that another court had improperly denied Oleksander Gress his candidacy.

When Sevastopol voters received their election ballots, they saw Mr. Gress' name crossed out with a pen, which prohibited them from voting for the eligible candidate.

In Khmelnytsky, voting for the city council didn't even take place because numerous city election commission members suddenly became ill in the four days leading to elections.

Central Election Commission (CEC) Chair Yaroslav Davydovych called it a planned sabotage. Days earlier, a court had disallowed the candidacy of the city's incumbent mayor.

Expect more mayoral election results to get canceled, said Oleksander Chernenko, the press secretary of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU), particularly in Cherkasy, Lutsk and Kirovohrad, where a judge decided to remove a candidate on election day.

Some Kirovohrad voters cast their ballots for that candidate, so it's likely the elections will have to be held there again, Mr. Chernenko explained.

After weeks of warning the Ukrainian government and political blocs that district election commissions were inadequately prepared, the CVU criticized their performance in a March 27 statement.

Preparation for the elections were carried out at a low standard, for which both government authorities and political leaders were responsible the CVU statement said.

The poor preparations included last-minute changes to the election law, simultaneous voting in five different elections, a lack of voting ballots, violations of election privacy and poorly organized voter lists.

More than 28,000 voters and commission members called the CVU's election hotline to make reports, the CVU reported.

Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) observers gathered in Kyiv on March 29 to report on their election monitoring missions.

More than 200 observers from the U.S. and France had joined the UCCA mission.

Most reported very positive experiences, and few reported any cases of fraud, violence or intimidation.

The Dnipropetrovsk Oblast election monitoring team appeared to have had the most problems.

During voting, Dnipropetrovsk local police told Stefan Kira of St. Augustine, Fla., that he had to register with them. Though Ukraine's election monitoring laws didn't require Mr. Kira to register, he said he complied with police to avoid possible conflicts.

While seated in the room with the police officer, Mr. Kira said he also noticed two empty ballot boxes, an election violation since all the boxes had to be within view of observers and voters.

"Given that I was in a closed room with a police officer, I wasn't going to say anything," Mr. Kira said.

A far more serious incident occurred when Andrew Hadzewycz of Morristown, N.J., told a police officer in one of the nearly 20 polling stations he and his colleagues visited in the area of Dnipropetrovsk that he was violating procedures by standing in the voting area.

The officer refused to leave, and a large, intimidating police chief insisted to Mr. Hadzewycz that his officers had a right to be anywhere. Mr. Hadzewycz held his ground and, ultimately, the police chief told the officer to leave the voting area.

A team of nine observers led by Jaroslaw Zawadiwsky of Cleveland had among the roughest experiences in the Kharkiv Oblast, where locals were intimidating the observers, demanding to know who they were and what they were doing.

"The number of leather jackets milling about increased into the evening," he said.

The line at one polling station was 45 minutes long, and numerous voters left without bothering to wait, Mr. Zawadiwsky noted.

Most experiences were positive.

Taking part in his second observation mission to Ukraine, Reno Domenico, a high school principal from Pine Hill, N.J., said he was impressed with Ukraine's uniform national voting system and use of paper ballots, "which makes it difficult to cheat because you can't lose them."

"I've seen a lot dirtier elections in Philadelphia and Camden, N.J.," Mr. Domenico said.

Zenon Halkowycz of Teaneck, N.J., led a team to Cherkasy, where he noticed only "small technical violations that would not have any effect on the outcome of the elections."

Missing seals on the ballot boxes was a typical problem reported by many observers. Each ballot box requires two seals, and often only one was applied.

Mr. Hadzewycz reported that in one polling station he visited the ballot boxes were not sealed on both sides as required. He brought this to the attention of the local election commission, which at first said it had not received enough fasteners to secure the boxes, but within minutes found the fasteners and sealed the clear containers.

In Sevastopol, a district election commission neglected to send out notifications for voters to register, said Osyp Rozhka of Philadelphia. As a result, several hundred citizens were excluded from voting lists and couldn't vote.

Many observers reported polling stations opening more than an hour late. Dr. Vassyl Lonchyna of Hinsdale, Ill., reported a Donetsk polling station that delayed opening for two and a half hours because of internal fighting and politicking.

Then, the commission intentionally delayed the vote-counting process during the night, Dr. Lonchyna said. Tallying votes dragged into the next evening when, finally, at 5 p.m., an elections enforcer took over the district commission and restored order.

In fact, many monitoring teams pulled all-nighters, observing commission members counting votes all night and into the next afternoon. One team in Ivano-Frankivsk was still in its observation mission three days after Election Day.

Olena Chebyniak of Stamford, Conn., said a few commission members at one district in Zhytomyr began fainting for lack of breaks, food and sleep.

"The Central Election Commission needs to pay attention to how people work during elections," Ms. Chebyniak said. "They won't have anyone working on these elections anymore."

The UCCA observers sang the praises of Ukraine's women, whose polling stations and district commissions were far more organized and efficient than those managed by their male counterparts.

"Every district chaired by a woman was working perfectly," Mr. Halkowycz said. "They were disciplined and on time."

This year's observer mission was just as necessary as during the Orange Revolution to demonstrate that true democracy has been instilled in Ukraine, said Michael Sawkiw Jr., president of the UCCA.

"These elections were held in a free, fair and transparent manner," Mr. Sawkiw Jr. said. "We helped the citizens of Ukraine achieve true democracy."

The Ukrainian World Congress sponsored 221 observers to Ukraine, mostly from the Russian Federation, while the Ukrainian Canadian Congress fielded a mission of more than 150 observers.

The UCC leadership reported a dramatic improvement in the election process compared to the presidential race in 2004. UCC observers reported this year's elections were conducted freely and fairly, in accordance with domestic and international election laws.

"Generally, we have received superb cooperation from Ukraine's central and local election commissions and from all parties across the country," said Paul Grod, the UCC's mission chief.

Both the UCC and the International Republican Institute (IRI), whose observers visited more than 100 polls, reported that the multiple elections taking place on a single day made lines longer.

The IRI recommended that the Ukrainian government hold parliamentary and local elections separately, and provide larger polling stations.

Additionally, "despite the good-faith efforts on the CEC, the voter lists do contain some inaccuracies, some as a result of the transliteration of names," the IRI reported in a press release, recommending that the CEC establish a national, computerized database of voters.

Mr. Halkowycz of the UCCA mission recalled what one woman said on his visit to a Cherkasy village that seemed to sum up this year's election.

"For the first time in my life, no one is telling me how to cast my vote," he remembered her telling him.

For more on international observers' assessements of the parliamentary election see page 5.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, April 2, 2006, No. 14, Vol. LXXIV

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