KIEV, Oct. 24 - A group of opposition lawmakers uncovered a massive cache of undocumented ballots printed at a facility in Kharkiv, suggesting that preparation for fraud is underway ahead of Ukraine’s Oct. 31 local elections.

About 13,000 undocumented ballots were uncovered at the Folio-Plus printing house, which was contracted by the local election commission to print ballots ahead of the vote.

There were supposed to be 720,000 ballots officially printed by the facility, but it is unclear how many undocumented ballots have been printed in total and shipped to the customer.

“It is impossible to establish how many undocumented ballots have been printed and where they had been shipped,” Volodymyr Filenko, an opposition lawmaker from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc who led the effort of uncovering the undocumented ballots, said. “No one is able to give that information at the printing house.”

The opposition lawmakers were led to the Folio-Plus facility by an anonymous phone caller, who reported about the possible falsification with ballot printing underway in the Kharkiv region.

Police was unable to comment on the developments in the Kharkiv region, and the authorities were supposed to issue comments on Monday.

The finding is the most troubling sign yet indicating that President Viktor Yanukovyc’s Regions Party, which is getting heavy support from local authorities across Ukraine, may resorting to manipulations at the Oct. 31 local elections.

“We have all the reasons - and now the proof - to say that figures representing the Regions Party are in fact sabotaging the process and are organizing the falsification of the vote,” Arsen Avakov, the leader of Tymoshenko’s group in Kharkiv, said. “This is a crime and we are demanding this be stopped immediately.”

The report of uncovering undocumented ballots comes as another opposition party, the Front of Changes led by former Parliamentary Speaker Arseniy Yatseniuk, said some local authorities have been considering temporarily relocating thousands of Yanukovych supporters to regions where the Regions Party’s popularity has been sagging.

The Front of Changes said the relocations of people from the Donets region had been quietly taking place in the Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

“This is an improved [election fraud method known as] ‘carousel’ that had been tested back during the 2004 election,” the Front of Changes said.

Yanukovych lost presidential election to Viktor Yushchenko in December 2004 after the Supreme Court, citing the massive fraud as an evidence, had cancelled results of the second election round in November 2004.

A recent opinion poll indicated that most of Ukrainians fear the government may resort to fraud and manipulations at the upcoming elections.

At least 58.3% of respondents said the government may falsify the election, while only 30.2% said the elections will be free and fair, according to the poll by the Razumkov Center, a Kiev-based independent think tank.

At least 47.3% of respondents said the fraud and falsifications would benefit political allies of Yanukovych, while 7.7% said that the fraud will benefit the opposition, according to the poll. (tl/ez)