In the recent U.S. presidential elections, the results were clear and undisputed just hours after the polls closed.
In Ukraine, it has been nearly two weeks and the results are not only unclear, they are heavily disputed.
This is unacceptable.
The reasons include corrupt election commission officials who committed crimes such as spoiling ballots.
Other violations include abuse of powers by local and national government officials. The nation’s rich people have been willing to pay high prices to get their way into parliament.
Corrupt judges have issued ridiculous rulings. Crooked candidates bully and bribe their way in.
As a result of this rampant vote tampering, we are now in the middle of a legal and political deadlock over 13 constituencies.
The Central Election Commission and parliament ordered a re-vote in five troublesome districts, but the opposition believes their victory is being stolen in the others, too.
There is no consensus about what to do – whether to accept repeat elections in five districts or continue demanding a new vote in all 13 contested races. Opposition leader Vitali Klitschko wants a new general election based solely on the proportional system.
Here’s where consensus should be found: Catching and punishing those who had a hand in rigging the results of the election.
The culprits include riot police who removed ballots on the whim of local officials and judges, who also belong in jail if these allegations are true.
Officials who entered the wrong data into the election computer system, sometimes reversing the numbers from paper protocols, should also be tried.
Of course, those who commissioned the crimes and covered up for them should also be on the list. Ukraine’s criminal code has article 157, which punishes obstruction of one’s electoral rights.
Prison terms range from three to 12 years in cases when fraud affected the result of the vote.
Article 158 demands prison terms of up to eight years for those tampering with ballots and fudging tabulations.
The vote fixers should be prosecuted under those articles to the fullest extent of the law.
After the rigged presidential vote in 2004, which triggered the Orange Revolution, the winners came to power with the slogan: “Bandits to Jail.”
They failed to deliver and are now paying the price. Former President Viktor Yushchenko is deep in the forest of political irrelevance. Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymsohenko is now in prison, although unfairly.
It’s important to learn from past misdeeds and send the fraudsters to jail this time.
Otherwise, the future of democratic elections is imperiled.
