European Parliament member Marek Siwiec monitoring the parliamentary election campaign in Ukraine has said Ukraine has surprised him "once again" by political tricks that the ruling party is using to win the polls.
“I thought I knew all the election tricks, but Ukraine surprised me once again,” Siwiec said in a statement posted on his blog.
Siwiec said he had sent a group of envoys to Dnipropetrovsk a week
before and plans to visit the city on the voting day, October 28.
“The real battle, however, takes place in the single-mandate
constituencies, and here the human creativity has no limits. The hit of
the election are so-called ‘technical candidates’,” he said.
“In addition to the strong candidates recommended by political
parties, almost anyone can appear at the electoral list. Often in one
constituency, where several thousand people vote, there are over 20
candidates. It is easy to guess that most of them are exposed only to
pick up opponents’ votes,” Siwiec writes.
The European Parliament member also cited other examples that stunned him.
“My envoys reported that courts generally deny any claim against the
candidates who are in power. For example, a local TV repeatedly refuses
to show political spots of one of the candidates. A claim submitted in
this matter to the court has been denied. The same happened with a
complaint against covering and putting billboards right on top of
opponent’s posters. But the real surprise is that the same lawyer
represents the district election commission and a candidate of the Party
of Regions,” he said.
“All this creates a rather unpleasant picture of the ongoing campaign,” he concluded.
