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UJ Week
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Nation    

Courts used against opposition candidates
Journal Staff Report

KIEV, Nov. 1 – Ukraine’s parliamentary elections, criticized by international observers for lack of transparency, became even messier Thursday when pro-government candidates used courts to try to overturn victories by their opposition rivals.

A court ruling in Kirovohrad banned the local election commission from publishing results at majority district No. 99 that had earlier given a victory to opposition candidate Andriy Tabalov.

A court ruling in Kiev ordered local commission to recount ballots at 28 polling stations in the district No. 211 that had earlier given victory to opposition candidate Serhiy Teriokhin.

A similar tactic is used in the district No. 94 in the Kiev region in order to prevent the victory by opposition candidate Viktor Romaniuk.

The developments underscore serious problems plaguing 15 majority districts across Ukraine where ballot counting has been particularly slow from the start, fueling concerns over election fraud.

Other problems include feeding manipulated data by local election commissions to the Central Election Commission, and also repeated re-counting that often damages ballots favoring opposition candidates.

“We are in favor of transparent ballot counting, but we believe that repeated re-counting is part of the scheme to manipulate and to falsify the vote,” the opposition Batkivshchyna party said in a statement.

These problems underscore massive pressure faced by opposition candidates at elections that have been watched closely by international observers for signs whether President Viktor Yanukovych would ease his policies restricting democracy.

Yanukovych, who needs strong support in Parliament to continue his policies, repeatedly promised to make sure the elections are fair and transparent. Yanukovych never made comments on the controversies surrounding ballot counting in majority districts.

The international observers complained the elections were flawed with U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton saying Wednesday the elections were a “step backwards for Ukraine’s democracy.”

This assessment is shared at least by some members of the Central Election Commission.

“The election day (Sunday) was very quiet and transparent, but unfortunately the next stage of election - establishing results of the vote - has entered into a terrible stage,” Zhanna Usenko-Chorna, a deputy head of the Central Election Commission, said.

At least 14 majority districts have failed to provide timely electronic ballot counting data, which she said had indicated that the data may “have been manipulated.”

But a number of election districts provided data that is “grossly falsified,” Usenko-Chorna said without elaborating.

At least 35 majority districts may have been manipulated and provided inaccurate election results, according to Spilna Sprava, a democracy and election watchdog, which monitored the ballot counting and submission.

At least 225 lawmakers are to be elected in 225 majority districts, while another 225 will be decided by a party-list vote.

Yanukovych’s Regions Party may eventually control 186 lawmakers in the 450-seat Parliament, according to data provided by the Central Election Commission after counting 99.6% of ballots.

Batkivshchyna may control 104 lawmakers, followed by the liberal Udar party’s 40, the nationalist Svoboda party’s 37 and Communist Party’s 32, according to the commission. There may be 50 independent lawmakers elected to Parliament that will most likely cooperate the ruling Regions Party, analysts said. (tl/ez)




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