Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU): Evaluation of Election Day
According to the CVU, voting day was generally in accordance with the requirements of Ukrainian legislation and international standards. In comparison with the previous elections of the President of Ukraine in 2014, the nature of violations of electoral law have not drastically changed.
The official CVU observers identified a number of problems and violations during the voting process and in preparation for it, however, it had not been practiced on such a systematic basis and were not such as to have a significant impact on the results of the will of the citizens.
Among the most typical violations are mistakes in the work of district election commissions, the disclosure of the secrecy of voters’ voting by publishing relevant photo materials, campaigning out of time, specified by the Law "On Elections of the President of Ukraine”, problems with voter lists. Disclosure of the secrecy of voting was of a mass character. On the eve of the second round of elections, it is necessary for public authorities to carry out explanatory work among voters regarding the prohibition of violation of the secrecy of voting, as well as among the members of the PEC—on clarification of the bases of electoral legislation.
A large number of violations were caused by incorrect interpretations or ignorance of the current legislation by members of election commissions. Partly contributed to such a situation the replacement of members of election commissions and the lack of time to familiarize new members of commissions with the electoral law. On the election day, several commissions took unlawful decisions to put the stamp "is out” next to the names of certain candidates, which led to spoiling the ballots and delays in the start of voting. Also among the problems: filling in the election documentation before the official end of the voting.
On the election day, the CVU notes the problems with voter lists. Thus, some citizens did not find themselves on the voters’ lists on election day, although they said they had received a personal invitation. Before the second round the voter registration authorities, jointly with the election commissions, should find out why such problems have taken place and work out ways of their solution.
In some cases, CVU recorded the use of such unfair technologies as the transportation of citizens to the polling stations, attempts of controlled voting and to take ballot papers outside the polling stations. These facts were sporadic. CVU urges the Interior Ministry to properly investigate such cases and bring the perpetrators to justice.
The CVU generally welcome the activities of the Central Election Commission and the National Police to prevent violations on the day of voting. On election day, the CEC exercised its activities in compliance with the provisions of the electoral law. Law-enforcement agencies properly ensured the rule of law at polling stations and responded to violations of electoral law.
In general, voters had the opportunity to make an informed choice on election day. Only in some cases there were no info posters of candidates at the polling stations. In all other situations, the commissions met the requirements of the law and provided citizens with all the necessary information. Also, as required by law, 5 days before the polling day, the CEC issued on its website interim financial reports of the candidates for the post of President of Ukraine, which contributed to the transparency of the electoral process and created conditions for a conscious choice of citizens.
The CVU observers detected a number of problems related to the transportation of election documents and the establishment of the results of voting. The main problems at this stage were the following: improper filling in of protocols on counting of votes, staying in long lines to file the documents to district election commissions, violation of the procedure of the transportation of election documents.
Quelle: Committee of Voters of Ukraine, 01.04.2019, Externer Link: http://www.cvu.org.ua/eng/nodes/view/type:news/slug:otsinka-dnia-holosuvannia-vysnovky-kvu