Ukrainian opposition parties accused President Viktor Yanukovich's Party of the Regions of "stealing" several parliamentary seats as the vote count from Sunday's election neared completion on Friday
The Party of the Regions is set to retain a majority in the
450-seat parliament with their traditional communist allies and
some independents.
The opposition voiced suspicions about sudden swings in
counting away from opposition candidates and in favour of the
Regions in some constituencies.
“If manipulations continue … we will do everything to make
sure this election is ruled void,” Vitaly Klitschko, the leader
of opposition liberal party UDAR (Punch), told reporters.
“According to our data … we are missing 1.5 to two
percentage points (of the actual vote compared to the official
results).”
UDAR campaign manager Volodymyr Kurennoi told local media:
“This 1.5 percent (of votes) was stolen from us.”
However, no opposition party has called for large-scale
public protests – which derailed Yanukovich’s first bid for the
presidency in 2004 – despite a hunger strike by jailed
opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko over what she said was
widespread vote-rigging.
According to results as of Friday, the Party of the Regions
was set to win 187 seats with its communist allies getting 37
and independents, most of whom are likely to support the
Regions, securing 43.
This should add up to a comfortable majority for the ruling
party.
In the opposition camp, Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna bloc
stood at 104 seats, Klitschko’s UDAR at 40 and the far-right
Svoboda (Freedom) nationalists at 37.
Half of the parliament is elected by voting for political
parties while the other half is chosen in individual
constituencies. This means that one percentage point can
translate into at least two seats for a party.
SCUFFLES IN VOTING DISTRICTS
In some individual districts, prolonged vote-counting
triggered accusations of rigging and led to scuffles.
Riot police used tear gas at a district election commission
in the town of Pervomaisk on Thursday night, local media
reported. The opposition says initial vote results were reviewed
in favour of a Regions candidate.
The interior ministry said in a statement police had been
called in to help bailiffs retrieve vote counts submitted by
individual polling stations in line with a court ruling.
Arseny Yatsenyuk, who leads the United Opposition bloc which
includes Batkivshchyna, urged the central election commission on
Friday to investigate claims of fraud, Batkivshchyna said.
The Party of the Regions has denied allegations of
vote-rigging.
Tymoshenko, who is being treated for back trouble in a
state-run hospital, may have put her lieutenants in
Batkivshchyna in an awkward position with her hunger strike.
According to partial results of the party vote based on
99.65 percent of ballots, Batkivshchyna had secured 25.52 of the
vote, a figure in line with exit polls and pre-election surveys.
While they criticised the election over issues such as
Tymoshenko’s imprisonment and biased media coverage, monitors
from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe
were largely positive about the voting in their preliminary
report this week.
The central election commission has until Nov. 17 to
announce the official election result.
