More than a week has passed since The Day of elections to parliament, but the Central Election Commission is far from announcing the final results of the vote. There have been many problematic districts. Desperate battles in separate single-seat districts (over 10) have already cast shadow on the elections, which are far from being shiny. The international observers, in particular OSCE and PACE, have already called these elections a step backwards. At the moment European politicians are cautioning Ukrainian ones from delay in announcing the results of the elections.
“EU High Representative Catherine Ashton and European Commissar Stefan Fuele expressed their concern with the fact that the overall results of the elections have not been announced during five days after the voting ended. They are calling upon the power and the parties which have taken part in the elections to take steps needed to finish the processing of votes which should reflect the real will of Ukrainian voters. The complaints concerning the elections should be considered in no time and with full correspondence to established procedures,” the press service of the EU office in Ukraine reports.
Certainly, the Central Election Commission has time till November 12 to deal with the complaints, but in Ukraine they are not considered quickly and with correspondence to regulations and procedures. Unfortunately, everything is being done, including by courts, to recognize either pro-governmental, or candidates close to the power as winners in certain election districts. The district no. 94 in Kyiv oblast proves to be a demonstrative example. Here the District Election Commission acknowledged the voting in 28 electoral districts, which include 30,000 voters, null and void, based on the decision of the Court of Appeal. As a result, the opposition candidate Viktor Romaniuk, who was winning with a great lead over Party of Regions’ Tetiana Zasukha, lost. And there are numerous examples of this kind in all parts of Ukraine.
But there remains also the Kyiv district no. 223 where the votes have not been counted. At least this kind of situation was yesterday. A self-nominated, close to power candidate Viktor Pylypyshyn is competing here against Freedom’s Yurii Levchenko. All the components of the current after-election situation are involved there: Berkut, courts, young men with journalists’ certificates, etc.
“Defending the mandates of opposition candidates, which have won the trust of Ukrainians and have defeated the pro-governmental candidates, remains the most important task for today,” Freedom member Ihor Miroshnychenko. It should be noted that this year’s elections have confirmed that there is a civil society in Ukraine. Ukrainians’ struggle for the districts where the power is trying to exert pressure with the help of athletic looking young men, courts, bribing commissions, etc., all of this is going on and people continue to defend their choice. This is proof of the fact that the nation is awakening. A very positive moment of the elections’ results is that buckwheat, bribery, and administrative resource do not always work. Unfortunately, they do have effect in the east of the country, but central Ukraine, let alone the west, does not even react to this kind of actions. This gives grounds to look with optimism into the future. The next elections, whenever they take place, will be much purer, more unbiased, and will become fatal for the current power. The talks of the Party of Regions about its victory are no more than flexing one’s muscles.”
Yesterday the opposition tried to “awaken” the nation. In front of the Central Election Commission in Kyiv the supporters of three opposition forces, United Opposition, UDAR, and Freedom, were rallying against the falsifications in the elections. “We demand that Yanukovych and Central Election Committee recognized the results of the victory of the opposition forces, called to account all those who rewrote the protocols and stole the results of the elections,” reads the manifesto of the opposition, declared by Arsenii Yatseniuk after he consulted Klitschko and Tiahnybok. But there have been even more radical demands. “If the power does not stop the falsification of the election process and misappropriation of mandates the opposition candidates received, the United Opposition-Fatherland is ready to recognize the Verkhovna Rada of the next convocation incompetent and will insist on holding early presidential and parliamentary elections,” the decision of the Council of United Opposition-Fatherland emphasizes. Previously the opposition had stated about annulling the lists.
“If the opposition MPs refuse from their mandates now by annulling the lists, i.e., leave the election process, the consequences will be as follows: the mandates they have won according to the percentage of votes received in many-seat districts will be simply divided between the Party of Regions and the Communist Party,” professor of law Viktor Musiiaka said in his commentary to The Day. As for the one-seat districts, new elections will be held there, and a person with top second result will become an MP. On the other hand, any legal consequences can take place only after the Central Election Commission announces the results. What kind of results will they be? The Article 82 of the Constitution stipulates that the Verkhovna Rada becomes legally capable and plenipotentiary only when no less than 300 MPs are elected to parliament. If the oppositionists refuse from their mandates (they have 182 mandates I think), clearly, there will be less than 300 votes. So, the Verkhovna Rada will not be able to start working until the MPs in one-seat districts are elected. But here is the thing. The same Article 82 stipulates that the first session can take place no later than 30 days after the results of the elections are announced. And early elections can be held in a matter of 60 days, which means there will be no possibility to elect the MPs. After the 30-day term passes, there will be grounds to believe that the elections did not yield result, and the president will be able to announce the early elections.”
