Most candidates from Ukraine’s leading parties do not meet democratic criteria and the current campaign is violating electoral law.
Such are the findings of Ukrainian civic organizations that summed up
their monitoring of the campaign and candidates up until Oct. 22, just six days
before the Oct. 28 parliamentary elections.
“While citizens have few mechanisms of control, politicians have very
few restrictions. They can distribute bribes and create so- called charity
foundations when the campaign has started, they can enjoy a lifestyle that does
not match their tax returns, and they are not obliged to report to the voters
in any way,” said Sergiy Taran, one of the members of Chesno civic
organization.
Chesno has been evaluating candidates
based to four criteria of honesty – involvement in corrupt schemes,
infringement of human rights and freedoms, trustworthiness of declared incomes,
and adherence to a political position.
The result of the analysis can be found on
each candidate’s profile on the website of the Chesno organization.
Having checked 504 candidates from 21
parties running for parliament, Chesno found that 284 violators on at least one
criterion. The ruling Party of Regions had the biggest share – 107 violators
out of 120 parliamentary candidates inspected.
The United Opposition, did not come out
much better with 88 violators out of 120 prospective parliamentarians. For
Vitaliy Klitschko’s UDAR had 18 out of 70, the Communist Party – 24 out of 70,
and the right-wing Svoboda party – 9 out of 25.
Most of them failed to meet the first
criterion – involvement in corrupt schemes. Despite pointing it out to the
respective parties, Chesno noted that only UDAR had revoked their bad apples.
Many candidates also initiated or
supported the bills which violate human rights and freedoms. Svoboda and
Communist candidates are both guilty of making hate speeches.
Chesno also verified 1801 candidates
running in single mandate constituencies and found that 653 of them had
violated at least one criterion. The Party of Regions, again, led the list with
151 violators out of 207 checked by Chesno.
The United Opposition had 66 violators of
176 checked candidates; UDAR had 42 out of 189; Communists 40 out of 222, and
Svoboda – 13 out of 33.
Olga Aivasovska from the Opora civic
movement said the biggest reported problem was the use of administrative
resources. The movement counted 179 such cases just in September. Many of them
involved local authorities – oblast and regional state administration heads –
endorsing candidates or political parties during office hours and using staff
and office resources to assist campaigns.
Officials often accompany candidates to
meetings with voters and give speeches in their support, which is strictly
prohibited. The most high profile case involves the son of prime minister
Mykola Azarov, Oleksiy, who is running in Donetsk Oblast and is accompanied and
openly endorsed by majors of nearby towns and other officials.
But there are many more cases throughout
the country.
“Administrative leverage
is mostly used for the benefit of candidates from the Party of Regions, and
less frequently for the benefit
of self-nominated candidates,” Opora’s September report reads.
Next most common violation is bribing
voters, with 126 documented cases by Opora.
“Despite widespread reporting by media and
activists on the constant distribution of food packages and other bribes, there
has been virtually no reaction from prosecutors. Only in one case, in Luhansk
oblast, a criminal case was opened. However, it was opened against a candidate
who has gone missing,” says Aivazovska.
The formation of district electoral commissions is
also an issue, as most of their members hail from the least active, marginal
parties. And the list of problems goes on.
“In 34 districts the name doubles of the candidates
were registered. Many technical candidates are registered who have no (real)
chances but are there to disperse the vote. Also, black PR is widely used with
fake leaflets and newspapers with false information about the candidate
distributed.This might not influence the vote seriously but it is a good
illustration of the level of politics in the country,” Aivazovska says.
Opora reports with hundreds of concrete cases are
available on the movement’s official web page in English and Ukrainian.
Kyiv Post staff writer Svitlana Tuchynska can be
reached at [email protected]
