Voters' committee issues statement (04/02/06)

Voters' committee issues statement

Following is the full text of the preliminary statement of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, which was issued by the CVU Press Service on March 27.

The Committee of Voters of Ukraine is a national civic organization that has conducted complex monitoring of election campaigns and voting in Ukraine for 12 years to encourage participants to follow Ukrainian legislation and international standards for democratic elections.

For the March 26 elections, CVU deployed 5,000 short-term observers on election day to polling stations throughout Ukraine with the status of official non-partisan observers or Tochka Zoru newspaper representatives. Additionally, a free telephone hotline was available before and during election day, providing legal advice and registering complaints on violations. On election day, 28,000 voters and election commission members called the hotline to provide or request information.

The voting for parliamentary and local elections took place and was conducted under free and transparent conditions. CVU registered very few acts of pressure on voters, members of election commissions, mass media and observers. The ballots put into the boxes reflect accurately the will of voters.

Despite challenges, the organizers of the elections continue to work in order to finalize the vote count. On election day morning, almost all of the polling stations opened and closed on time. As of 10 a.m. on March 27, CVU has not received information about serious violations of election legislation during the voting and vote count processes.

However, as CVU continues to observe the process of calculating and summarizing the election day results, attempts to falsify election results or the chances of invalidating some local election races are still possible.

The preparatory work on organizing and preparing for the election was conducted at a low level, both from sides of the authorities and political parties (blocs). The conduction of both local and national elections simultaneously, the complicated procedures of voting and vote tabulation, the amendments to the election legislation made in the few days preceding the election and the poor quality of voter lists caused long queues at polling stations and other organizational problems. Approximately 1 million voters were not able to exercise their right to vote because of problems with voter lists and long queues. CVU believes, however, that these problems were not planned, existed in all regions of Ukraine and did not provide an advantage to any political force.

CVU registered some attempts to falsify the voting, specifically for the local elections. Examples of election day violations include the following: a) violations of voter secrecy, b) lack of ballots at polling stations, c) attempts at ballot stuffing, d) bringing ballots outside of a station with the purpose of selling them, e) distribution of false agitation materials, and numerous procedural violations by voters and members of election commissions. Nevertheless, such situations were not numerous and members of election commissions and policemen reacted adequately and promptly.

Because of the small number of violations and the commission officials' appropriate efforts to remedy the situations, the revealed violations did not influence the results of the parliamentary elections, and not even the local elections. If it is proved that 10 percent or more of votes at a particular polling station are falsified or inaccurate, the elections at these polling sites can be declared invalid.

On election day there was discovered a planned action to produce and distribute blank forms for the purpose of including people on the voter lists through decision by the courts with reference to the Constitution of Ukraine. Such a procedure, authorized by some courts, contradicts the existing legislation and misled voters and election commission members. However, these inclusions were not numerous and do not provide sufficient reason to appeal election results, even for specific polling stations.

CVU expects that the vote tabulation in some polling stations will last until Monday evening, and the declaration of preliminary results will not be made until Tuesday morning. CVU advises all members of election commissions and representatives of political parties (blocs) to remain patient and calm.

CVU will release a more comprehensive report later in the week.

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