You're reading: Thousands protest voting fraud in Kryvyi Rih, call for uprising

KRYVYI RIH, Ukraine - About 5,000 demonstrators protested on Nov. 22 against alleged voting fraud in the Nov. 15 mayoral run-off election in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast's Kryvyi Rih.

The mood at the rally was tense, with
speakers calling for an uprising, saying that they feel the authorities are
ignoring both the law and their demands.

According to the official results of the
mayoral election, incumbent Mayor Yury
Vilkul, a former associate of disgraced ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, won
with 49.25 percent, while Yury Milobog from the pro-European Samopomich Party
got 48.83 percent – a difference of a mere 752 votes. Milobog argues that the
vote was rigged and is calling for a recount.

Early on Nov. 22, a Dnipropetrovsk court
rejected all of Milobog’s complaints, triggering a backlash from his supporters.

Andriy Denysenko, a Verkhovna Rada member
from the Ukrop party, has accused the presidential administration of pressuring
the court to rule in favor of Vilkul. President Petro Poroshenko’s spokesman
Sviatoslav Tsegolko did not reply to a request for comment.

The Nov. 22 rally was attended by Andriy
Sadovy, leader of the Samopomich Party; Oleh Berezyuk, the head of the
Samopomich faction at the Verkhovna Rada, as well as Samopomich MPs Yegor
Sobolev and Semen Semenchenko.

Sobolev demanded that members of Kryvyi Rih’s
election commission be replaced with more “principled” people.

Representatives of the Radical Party,
Batkyvshchyna, Petro Poroshenko Bloc and People’s Front at the commission,
which is dominated by Vilkul’s representatives, had consistently supported
Vilkul. Critics say the parties’ local branches have sold out to him.

As a result, earlier this week the Central
Elections Commission replaced representatives of the People’s Front and the
Radical Party at Kryvy Rih’s commission at the parties’ request. The Central
Elections Commission is also expected to consider requests by the Petro
Poroshenko Bloc and Batkyvshchyna to replace their representatives.

Another demand that Sobolev voiced was to
replace 12 out of the 15 Central Elections Commission members by Nov. 24.

The powers of the members, including its
Chairman Mikhailo Okhendovsky, an ex-ally of Yanukovych, expired in June 2014.
Poroshenko faces accusations of violating the law by not nominating new members
to replace them.

The Central Election Commission must cancel
the mayoral election results in Kryvyi
Rih, Sobolev said.

He also said that those responsible for
voting fraud should be jailed.

The police started a criminal case into the
alleged fraud earlier this week. On Nov. 21, Semenchenko also published a scanned copy
of a court ruling requiring the police to start a criminal investigation
against Pavlo Hivel, head of Kryvyi Rih’s election commission, regarding his
decision to proclaim Vilkul mayor before considering Milobog’s complaints.

Yet another demand is that newly-elected city
councilors from Batkyvshchyna and the Radical Party, who effectively confirmed
Vilkul’s election as mayor on Nov. 18, give up their mandates. The city
councilors were subsequently expelled from their respective parties for their
actions.

Sobolev issued an ultimatum, saying that
residents of Kryvyi Rih would introduce direct “popular sovereignty” if the
authorities fail to concede to their demands by Nov. 29, the date of the next
major rally of Milobog supporters.

Subsequently, Sobolev, Semenchenko and local
activists entered City Hall, wrote “Power belongs to the people” and “Down with
Vilkul” on its walls, and left. However, the police prevented most of the
protesters from entering.

Though no clashes took place, the mood throughout
was tense, with the theme of a popular uprising dominating the speakers’
messages.

“We are acting in accordance with the law,”
Iryna Turovska, a local EuroMaidan activist, said at the rally. “Ukraine has
ratified the (UN) Declaration of Human Rights), which says that people have a
right to rebellion as a last resort in protecting their rights, when all other
means have been exhausted.”

Meanwhile, Denysenko from the Ukrop party
argued that the struggle for fair elections in Kryvyi Rih was a continuation of
the resistance to Russian aggression.

“Thanks to your civic activity one of the most
important fronts in the struggle for Ukraine’s unity is holding out,” he said.
“Here in Kryvyi Rih there is a split that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin
and his local puppets, Vilkul’s team, are trying to use in order to divide
Ukraine… We won’t stop until we drive these demons out of our sacred Cossack
land.”

The AutoMaidan car-based protest group
supported the demonstrators by going to Vilkul’s house outside Kryvyi Rih on
Nov. 21 and blocking the Dnipropetrovsk Highway for 15 minutes on Nov. 22.

The protesters also set up a permanent tent
camp in front of City Hall on Nov. 20.

Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be
reached at
[email protected].