Two days after the Oct. 30 election, some districts in Kyiv have not moved even close to finishing the vote count. The inexplicable delays have fueled suspicion among the political opposition that the authorities are stalling to manipulate voting results.
In a Shevchenko district in
Kyiv where Viktor Pylypyshyn, a government-friendly candidate, is competing with Svoboda Party member Yuriy Levchenko for a seat in
the parliament, only 30 percent of the votes have been counted.
All other districts have
counted more than half of the votes, including two districts in the
capital where all votes have been counted.
Opposition forces claim precinct
election commission members in district 223 have deliberately slowed
down accepting protocols with voting results from
local election commissions in a bid to block the
opposition candidate.
Andriy Mahera, deputy head
of the Central Election Commission expressed concern on Oct. 29 that
with delayed vote count, referring to a number if districts in Kyiv.
As of this morning Oct. 30
with some 30 percent of the votes counted, Pylypyshyn is leading in
the race with some 6,199 voted cast in his favor. Svoboda’s Levchenko
is closely behind with just 5,705 of the votes.
Svoboda Party activists
told that the Kyiv Post that, according to all their protocols from
local district commissions, their candidate is some 800 votes ahead
of Pylypyshyn.
In April 2011, Kyiv
prosecutors charged Pylyshypyn, former head of the Shevchenko
regional government, with abuse of power that led to the loss of Hr
15 million ($1.875 million). The politician denied any wrongdoing.
In order to help ensure the
honest vote count, opposition leaders – United Opposition leader
Arseniy Yatseniuk and Svoboda leader Oleh Tyahnybok – paid a visit
late on Oct. 29 to the precinct commission.
Yatseniuk reminded the
commission head about criminal responsibility for election fraud.
“We came to help you
fulfill your constitutional duty to have a commission meeting and to
establish the voting results,” Yatseniuk told the commission head
as journalists and opposition parties activists looked on.
“We know that breaks in
the commission’s work are done with only one goal – to slow down
the vote count. There is no other explanation,” Yatseniuk told the
commission head. “We officially remind you personally of the
criminal responsibility of five years in prison if you try to steal
votes.”
Last night, the commission
took a “technical break” in their work until this morning, in
spite of the election law that the commission should work non-stop
until they arrive at the election results. Last night the commission
head claimed they have no quorum to continue their work and establish
voting results.
According to Yatseniuk,
the commission head explained the slow transfer of votes with the
Central Election Commission due to the slow work of the CEC’s server.
He also claimed that the commission deliberately make errors in the
protocols, which is why the CEC does not accept these protocols.
Kyiv Post staff writer
Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached at [email protected]
