You're reading: Yanukovych allies pick up 4 of 5 seats in by-elections

In the early hours of Dec. 17, Ukraine’s Central Election Commission tallied all the ballots from the by-election for five parliamentary seats that took place two days ago, revealing an ugly picture. Amid accusations of violations, including vote-buying, by opposition parties and two local election watchdogs, pro-government lawmakers took four out of five constituencies.

Two teams of international observers invited by the Ukrainian government have yet to determine whether the elections met internationally-recognized democratic standards: Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and Mission Canada, an observation mission sponsored by Canadian government.

The five by-elections in Cherkasy, Kaniv, Pervomaisk (Mykolaiv Oblast), Obukhiv (Kyiv Oblast) and Kyiv were held because their previous outcome could not be determined during last year’s regular elections due to major violations and fraud.

The pro-government Party of Regions will now have at least 207 members in its faction, while the opposition will number 169. The Communists, who usually align with the pro-government force on key votes, have 41 lawmakers, and the rest are formally non-aligned.

Election watchdog OPORA said that in at least two constituencies they monitored – in Kyiv and Cherkasy – the official results could not be trusted because of mass vote-buying reports in those constituencies.
“Vote buying mobilized people who probably wouldn’t have even voted,” said Olga Aivazovska, head of OPORA. “If vote buying is massive, it can seriously impact the outcome of the election, just like in Cherkasy and Kyiv.”

She said that OPORA monitors have plenty of video and audio evidence of vote buying in favor of winners Viktor Pylypyshyn in Kyiv and Mykhailo Poplavskiy in Cherkasy. Pylypyshyn denied any fraud on his side and even accused opposition candidates of fixing an exit poll that showed them winning the vote in his constituency. “Maybe they just failed their special operation again…Just like last year,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

Poplavskiy would not comment.

In its preliminary report, Mission Canada observed incidents of vote buying, voters not on the voters list voting without a court order, unauthorized persons present inside polling stations, the use of administrative resources during the election campaign, among other irregularities.

Head of election watchdog Committee of Voters of Ukraine Oleksandr Chernenko said that despite the irregularities reported, he sees no legal basis for cancelling election results again. He said the right to vote was still exercised by voters, despite the fact many were bought.

He said that the presence of unauthorized people at voting stations was another big problem. “Even if they did not interfere in the vote process, their presence created a negative atmosphere,” he said. Watchdogs observed groups of young men in sporty clothes that stayed close to the majority of polling stations in all five constituencies.

The official results furthermore differed greatly from an exit poll conducted by Rating Group, a private company, on election day. Its exit poll showed that four opposition members winning the election. Meanwhile Poplavskiy’s vote tally was much lower than the official result.

Pollster Iryna Bekeshkina says the difference between the exit poll findings and official results surprised her. Three factors could explain this, according to her: falsification, mass vote buying and low voter turnout.

“There are chances that election results would be canceled again, at least in the Kyiv election district, where fraud was obvious and monitors could not access polling stations, but such chances in our country do not depend on objective circumstances rather on political situation in the state, inner agreements and this is very hard to predict,” she said.

The new lawmakers

Viktor Pylypyshyn, 52
Kyiv Constituency #223

He is a veteran local politician, leader of “Kyivans First” civic movement, and ran as an independent. He owns a number of agricultural businesses, including many greenhouses. He also owns a tea packaging business for the Batik, Askold and Domashniy brands. He also was the head of one of Kyiv’s 10 administrative districts, and has unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2008.

Elected by: 34,684 people (44.89 percent)
Violations: Apart from allegations of mass vote buying, the constituency had a major problem with election transparency with observers not being given access to polling stations. Vote confidentiality was breached, and there were unauthorized people present, according to OPORA watchdog.

Ruslan Badaev, 41
Obukhiv, Kyiv Oblast Constituency #94

A Kyiv city councilman and one of the main beneficiaries of East-West Group, an asset management company, Badaev ran as an independent candidate using the trademark red, white and black colors of oppositional Batkivshchyna in his campaign. Formerly a Socialist Party member, but now heads a district branch of the Party of Regions in Kyiv Oblast.

Elected by: 53,363 people (58.2 percent)
Violations: The consensus opinion of election monitors is that the actual result in this constituency is trustworthy, but there were many irregularities with the actual election campaign. Not least of them was the fact that the opposition’s candidate, Viktor Romaniuk, fled Ukraine for Italy, and was disqualified from running close to election day, even though the legal terms for such a disqualification had run out.

Mykhailo Poplavskiy, 64
Cherkasy Constituency #194

Running as an independent, he is a Ukrainian singer, songwriter and rector of the Ukrainian University of Culture and Arts. He was a parliamentary member between 2002 and 2006 and sat on the culture committee. He often becomes a target of jokes for his tasteless music videos that often feature students of his university.

Electedd by: 37,331 people (53.5 percent)
Violations: According to OPORA elections watchdog, the Cherkasy election district was one of two where mass vote buying occurred. Multiple video and audio recordings were made of people carrying voter lists of people who were paid to vote in favor of Poplavskiy. Fraud is also suspected.

Leonid Datsenko, 50
Kaniv, Cherkasy Oblast Constituency #197

A poet and journalist, he is a member of the opposition Batkivshchyna Party. He has no significant political or social achievements. He has worked as a minor newspaper editor and produced several books on poetry. There are fears in the opposition camp that he might switch sides after getting his official status from the Central Election Commission.

Elected by: 33,372 people (63.5 percent)
Violations: Despite some minor violations reported, the Kaniv election contituency was marked as the most hassle-free by both OPORA and the Ukrainian Committee of Voters. Nevertheless, the presence of unauthorized people was reported at 10 percent of polling stations. There were cases recorded of voters getting ballots without producing identification, though experts say it did not affect the overall result.

Mykola Kruglov, 63
Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv Oblast Constituency # 132

He heads the Mykolaiv Oblast State Administration, and has been a member of the Party of Regions since 2000. Running as an independent, he had a parliamentary seat in 2002-2010, and since then was the president’s appointee in Mykolaiv region. Before that, he had a successful career in the local executive power and state-run enterprises related to ship building. His constituency had one of the dirtiest and most violent elections last year. It featured clashes with riot police, major violations and bullying of the oppositional candidate, his business and associated people.

Elected by: 32,947 (47.8 percent)
Violations: This constituency had the most disturbing number of unauthorized people at polling stations and the electoral commission. “Around 100 young people in sporty outfits were taking rotations near the oblast electoral commission. They said they are here to ensure transparent elections,” OPORA’s election report said. The report also notes that fifteen cars full of people were stopped by Batkivshchyna party deputies Mykhailo Apostol and Ihor Brychenko on the road to Pervomaisk with Party of Regions deputies inside. People in the buses said they were on a guided tour of Pervomaisk.