On the day following the voting – Monday 29 October – at a press conference, the CEC chairman Volodymyr Shapoval said that the election turned out to be a routine event. “Perhaps somebody is purposely looking for a scandal? Some politicians’ statements would indicate such a goal”, said Shapoval. He alluded to the opposition, who from the very beginning of the voting has been reporting violations.
Elections-2012, source: Reuters
Within a few days, the situation began to deteriorate. Even the CEC doubted whether the election was held in a peaceful way. Committee chair’s deputy Zhanna Usenko-Chyornaya called the election of 2012 the dirtiest one in the history of Ukraine. According to her, the voting process was peaceful and transparent, whereas thecounting was terrible. “There are a number of electoral districts that demonstrate this flawed aspect of the majority system”, she said. On 2 November, the CEC gathered for an emergency meeting.
Tear gas
Meanwhile in Kyiv, the district electoral committee № 223 was still counting the votes. There was a struggle between self-nominated Viktor Pylypyshyn and the representative of the “Svoboda” party Yuri Levchenko. As of 2 November, Pylypyshyn has officially gained 28.06%, and Levchenko – 27.42%. On 31 October, unidentified perpetrators used tear gas.
Using batons against ordinary people
According to the press service of the party “Front of Changes”, the workers of the executive service, with help of the soldiers from the special forces unit “Berkut”, have taken all the original protocols created by electoral committees out of the premises of the district electoral committee №132 (in Mykolaiv, Pervomaiski region). According to the press service of “Batkivshchina”, “berkutovtsy” could even be hitting people. “They were beating people with batons and kicking them. Also men in uniform and the police came to the rescue and started beating the ordinary citizens and used tear gas”, claimed people from the press service.
Does the end justify the means?
The Interior Ministry said that they only try to keep law and order as well as to protect the process of votes counting, while the opposition require an immediate decision from the President. “The parliamentary election was the dirtiest in the history of Ukraine, and in some regions it turned into a war against its own citizens. Delaying the announcement of election results, intimidation of the commissioners, occupation of regional committees, tear gas and ballots destruction will not allow the current government to pave its way to the total victory”, said Vitali Klitschko, the leader of UDAR. Everyone wants to win, but sometimes the main principle seems to be “the end justifies the means”.
The possibility to rerun the election
CEC members from the opposition groups began talking about the possibility of re-election. Ukraine has already went this way in 2004, but that situation was much worse. We can only hope that the people who are responsible for votes counting will carry out their duties in a proper manner despite the pressure from all sides. Perhaps that’s the real scandal – disturbance and election violations.
Translated by MA
