Report of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine on the monitoring results of election campaign from December 26 till January 26 of 2006
The Committee of Voters of Ukraine is an All-Ukrainian NGO that during several years has been implementing the complex monitoring of election campaigns in Ukraine with the purpose of following the Ukrainian legislation and international standards of democratic elections by the participants of election process. Since November 2005 CVU has started monitoring campaign preparations for Parliamentary and local elections within activity of Public initiative “Clean elections”. Since December this monitoring has grown into the long term monitoring of election campaign. Subject of monitoring became activity and violations of the legislation by representatives of political parties and election blocs, their headquarters, bodies of executive power and local governing bodies, election commissions, and mass media. This report is a result of monitoring that has been implementing during January 2006 by analytical group of CVU in Kyiv and 50 long term observers of CVU that worked in the all oblasts of Ukraine, Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the city of Kyiv and Sevastopol. During the reported period CVU observers that had a status of correspondents of the newspaper “Tochka Zoru” (some of them had started registering as official observers) attended party conferences and meetings, working groups on voters’ registration, local councils’ meetings, other events, and monitored mass media. The previous CVU reports can be found on the official CVU site www.cvu.org.ua
On monitoring results CVU certifies: 1. In January election campaign went on freely and had a competitive character. In general, the organizers of election process followed the legislation. However, low political standards of political party (blocs) representatives had negative influence on the course of elections. 2. District election commissions on election of deputies to Verkhovna Rada were formed within the terms determined by the legislation, however, they receive insufficient assistance from local governing bodies for managing their work. 3. During January the number of the facts of using administrative resource has grown comparatively to the previous months of election campaign. However, use of administrative resource was not a systematic phenomenon and aimed at supporting a chain of election campaign subjects. So, this practice did not have a determining or serious influence on the course of election campaign. 4. Most political parties turned out to be unprepared to participate in elections on proportional basis. The evidences of such situation are formation of nominal blocs instead of ideological, irresponsible attitude toward presenting candidates to the composition of the election commissions, lack of inner-party discipline and democracy in forming candidates’ lists. 5. In January election campaign was darken by numerous facts of using dirty methods of political fight, disseminating slanderous information that lead to undermining political parties’ authority and election process in general in voters’ opinion. 6. Start of election campaign to local council was marked by many conflicts and violations during forming territorial election commissions and candidates’ lists from political parties
and blocs. All campaign can be accompanied by constant election arguments and actions of law, and one of the possible outcomes can be canceling election results. 7. In several cases territorial election commissions have an indefinite status because the process of their formation and leaders’ determination is appealed against. 8. CVU welcomes the signing of the Agreement about securing fair elections by the President. Though many regulations of the Agreement duplicate the acting norms of the law, this document should prevent a series of classic problems of Ukrainian elections.
On monitoring results CVU recommends: 1. Organs of maintaining law and order should investigate the facts of dissemination slanderous information about candidates, and should find and punish violators. Subjects of election process should cooperate in this process and submit complaints. 2. Subjects of election process should adhere to the principle of fair elections, avoid using unfair and dirty methods of political fight, and sign the Agreement about fair elections. 3. Local government should provide necessary support in organizing election commissions’ work. 4. Leaders of governing bodies, enterprises, and other institutions should refrain from using administrative resource and introduce a sentencing policy for violators among their employees. 5. Political parties should publicize detailed information about candidates that are included to the election lists of the all levels in mass media and on party Internet resources. 6. Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine should unify the legislation concerning Parliamentary and local elections, namely time for voting and procedure of votes’ counting. Forming of constituency election commissions On January 24 Central election commission formed 225 election commissions on elections of deputies of Ukraine. The process of forming constituency election commissions was transparent and according to the legislation norms. However, we should mention an irresponsible attitude of many parties (election blocs) toward selection and presentation of candidacies to constituency election commissions. There were many cases when the subjects of election process that did not have real branches at the local level presented such candidates who were hard to find by the indicated contacts. They turned out to be absent or refused to work for a commission at the first meeting. CVU also fixed such facts when constituency election commission members occupied a civil servant position or were noticed for violating the legislation during the previous elections.
Cherkaska oblast A representative of Oliynyk and Syrota bloc was nominated as a chairperson in constituency election commission No201. At the first meeting it became obvious that this person was on hospital treatment in Moscow and couldn’t enter upon his duties. A representative of Patriotic Forces bloc (this bloc does not have its branches in rayon) was nominated as a commission member in the constituency election commission No203. This person lives in Cherkassy, does not have phone, and did not show up for the first meeting. Kyiv oblast At the first meeting of the constituency election commission No86 in Bila Tserkva it turned out that a chairperson was a civil servant. In the constituency election commission No91 a representative of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Party was a member of election commission during the previous elections and proved himself to be an irresponsible, negligent employee that did not report on 3 thousand hryvnyas.
Chervintsi oblast Oleksandr Polyak is a member of the constituency election commission No207 from People’s Republican Party. He works as a chief specialist in the department on press and information, management on internal policy and information of oblast state administration. City of Sevastopol Movchan Olga Dmytrivna that was a chairperson of the territorial election commission during the presidential elections in 2004 became a commission member of the constituency election commission No225 from Party of Regions. In 2004 commission’s work was non-transparent, procedures foreseen by the Law were severely violated, and there was no reaction to observers’ complaints. Court of Appeal of the city of Sevastopol made a decision about recognizing her activities illegal (however, court dragged out consideration of this case till the end of the appeal term. That’s why court acknowledged her activities to be illegal, but did not eliminate violations).
On the average 50-60% of constituency election commission’s members have experience of working in election commissions of different levels. The first meeting of constituency election commission was held in time, but not by all commissions. In most cases there was a quorum, but in some constituency election commissions many people did not show up at the first meeting. Neither journalists nor observers were present at the first meetings. Another problem is an insufficient work of local governing bodies on organization of proper conditions of constituency election commissions’ work and their material provision.
Ivano-Frankivsk oblast The first meeting of the constituency No80 was actually held by a chair of Tysmenytska rayon council Nahornyak. A chairperson nominated by Central election commission (representative of “People’s Democratic party for unity”) gave up the position. Kyiv oblast The first meeting of the constituency election commission No86 in Bila Tserkva and Brovary No93 were held on January 27, but they were not legitimate because many members and even a chairperson and deputy of CEC in Bila Tserkva did not show up. Many members presented to CEC No93 do not resident on the addresses that were given in presentations. On January 27 Brovary city government asked party leaders to find their party members that they nominated to CEC. City of Sevastopol At the first meeting of CEC No225 the secretary of commission Gavrylina announced that she could not speak Ukrainian (and she did not write an application for a secretary position and did not mention that she could speak Ukrainian) and offered to replace her. Gavrylina does not even know where the party “Ahead, Ukraine!” which she was representing, is situated in the city of Sevastopol. Kharkiv oblast At the first meeting of CEC No81 a chairperson M.Ya.Kharkovyi offered to vote for journalists’ attendance the meeting (according to the law about elections the journalists have a right to be present without invitation or commission’s agreement). Head of the department of internal policy of Lozivska city council M.Kraminska took part in the working process of the commission (according to the law about elections presence of unaccredited persons can be possible only by decision of corresponding commission).
Work of territorial election commissions As CVU predicted in the previous report, work of territorial election commissions at the local levels goes on in difficult and indefinite conditions connected with constant court decisions that oblige local councils to introduce changes to the composition of territorial election commissions. These decisions are caused by breaking the procedure of forming commissions or by changes introduces to the Law about local elections that became effective when TEC had been already formed.
There are also violations during TEC activity, namely, during collecting signatures by parties (blocs) at the local levels.
Donetsk oblast Members of TEC of the city of Yasynuvata were not informed about the topic that would be discussed at the commission meeting. They did not simply receive working materials. Representatives of Peasants’ Party of Ukraine received in TEC of Slovyansk rayon collecting sheets by statements, but without commission’s meeting and its corresponding decision. In Telmanovskyi rayon Party of Regions has already collected signatures, though TEC have not issued collecting sheets yet. Cherkassy oblast The bright example of interference of power into election process happens in Tubiltsi village of Cherkasy rayon. Village mayor Shafikova Nadiya Antonivna nominated a chair, secretary and deputy without permission and ignoring parties’ presentations. Shafikova also leads the commission’s meetings. Village TEC does not work in a practical way. Chernigiv oblast On January 16 the out of order twentieth session of Bakhmatskiy rayon council was held. The question about forming rayon territorial election commission was discussed for the second time (the previous decision reached by direct voting was abolished in legal form on base of an appeal statement of PUOU rayon organization).
Work of governing bodies and use of administrative recourse during election camapign During the reported period activity of the governing bodies on securing organization and implementing elections was not satisfactory. In most cases it concerned providing of constituency and many territorial election commissions with necessary conditions for their activity.
City of Sevastopol Members of CEC No225 did not know where they would hold their meeting till 2 p.m. Before they had planed that the meeting would be held in the building of Gagarinska rayon administration and rayon council. However, head of Gagarinska rayon council Yu.Burovenko did not allow holding CEC their meetings there. When CEC members gathered in one of the room of Gagarinska rayon council office, Yu.Burovenko rushed into the room and demanded to stop the meeting and leave the building (but commission stayed there). It became clear later that Yu.Burovenko gave the rooms that were suggested to CEC to rayon TEC. The temperature was below zero in the room where the meeting was held. In addition, there were no equipment except chairs and tables. Rivne oblast There were also problems with accommodation and equipment in CEC No157 (Sarnenskiy rayon).
Cases of using official position in favor of subjects of election process became more numerous in comparison with the first month of campaign. However, these cases are not systematic. Moreover, similar violations were fixed almost by all subjects of election process that had in their ranks civil servants of different levels and conducted active election campaign. Namely, they are PUOU, Party of Regions, Yulia Timoshenko bloc, bloc “Ne Tak”, PSU, Ukrainian Peole’s Party (KostenkaPliushch bloc), Litvin bloc, “Vidrodzhenya” (renascence) and others. It is also worth to mention that use of administrative resource is less rough comparing to the previous elections in Ukraine. In general, it does not concern the pressure on voters or officials, but as a rule a powerful position is used by officials for agitation in favor of parties or blocs, which they belong to. We should point out and welcome the efforts of governing bodies to strive against violations. Such attempts were not observed during the previous election campaign in Ukraine. In particular, new head of Administration of internal policy of the Volyn oblast state administration – Zinaida Gordienko was rebuked by Head of Volyn oblast state administration for sending a letter addressed to editors of communal published editions of the oblast. In this letter Gordienko gave recommendations to journalists how to cover the last political events in the country and activity of the oblast state administration officials.
However, cases of using administrative recourses in favor of different subjects of election process are wide-spread:
Vinnytsya oblast On January 17 during her business trip Head of the Fund of State Property Valentyna Semeniuk agitated for SPU during the meetings with collective industrial enterprises, attendees of the School of local government affiliated to Vinnytsya city council and the public. On January 12 Head of rayon state administration Romaniuk openly agitated for PUOU during the meeting in Teplykskyi rayon. Volyn oblast Deputy head of Volyn oblast state administration Volodymyr Karpuk agitated during his appearance on TV. On Volyn oblast state TV and radio channel Volodymyr Karpchuk was called a member of political council of Volyn oblast PUOU organization instead a civil servant. Donetsk oblast Main administration of Pension fund in Donetsk oblast subscribed pensioners for the newspaper “Veteran of Donbas” and deducted means from their pensions without pensioners’ agreement. The first and second editions of 2006 were dedicated to the party “ECO+25”. In Horlivka there was a flag of the “Our Ukraine” city organization in the building of city council on the third floor in the room No323 where clarification of the voters’ lists was conducted. Representatives of “Renaissance” conducted a party conference in the building of Yasynuvata direction of the rail-way transportations that is a classified object and is guarded by militarized guard. In Yasynuvata there was a concert dedicated to the Students’ Day in the Building of science and creative work. Organizers of the concert brought students of Debaltsevo Railway Technical School, Sloviansk Railway Technical School, Artemivsk Railway Technical School, and Donetsk Institute of Railway Transport. At the concert there were the president of the latter institution V.I.Poddubnyak, director of Donetsk railroad N.I.Lukhanin that agitated for the party “Renaissance” and gave valuable presents to the technical schools. Zaporizhzhya oblast In Zaporizhzhya oblast the congratulations with a New Year were placed on 140 big boards by the acting mayor Ye.H.Kartashova (mayor and potential candidate for the mayor position of Zaporizhzhya) and governor Chervonenko (heads the list of PUOU to oblast council). As it became known from the reliable sources of advertising agencies, posters of Kartashov and Chervonenko were pressed on the advertising agencies as social advertisements by rayon state Administrations to be placed free of charge. Luhansk oblast From the registration journal of phoned telegrams of Svativskyi rayon Road Transport Administration the phoned telegrams were withdrawn with a signature of the director of Svativska rayon council V.S.Chesnykh that were saying: “We invite you and delegates your collective to attend the meeting with the leader of the Party of Regions Yanukovych V.F. that will take place on December 22, 2005 at 11:45in the street Radyanska (in front of the Central Election commission “Svatove-Luchane”)”. Candidate to Luhansk city council from the Party of Regions Arkadiy Lusnuchevskiy told at the conference how he would agitate for his party: 950 drivers worked at his enterprise and he promised to conduct an explanatory talk. Moreover, Lysnychevskyi promised one-party members to secure order at the polling stations that were situated in the territory of his transport property: “In order no stranger gets there.” Mykolaiv oblast At the end of December “with the help” of Mykolaiv oblast state administration an oblast fair was organized where consumer goods and foodstuff from the all rayons of the oblast. Every tent on the fair had a logotype of PUOU together with the Mykolaiv oblast emblem. This orange (meaning color) camp was decorated by a big poster on the scene: “Yes – Sadykov” (O.Sadykov is the head of Mykolaiv oblast state administration). In the office of communicational center of Citizens’ Association in support of the program of the oblast state administration “New power – new possibilities of citizens” there was one of the unofficial local PUOU’s headquarters. The PUOU symbols were placed on the façade of the building. Odesa oblast In the office of the public constituency committee No1 of Kyiv rayon (former village council) of the city of Odesa member of this institution agitated visitors for the Party of Regions and disseminated the newspaper of PR “Zorya regioniv” (Dawn of regions).
Rivne oblast In the Rivne oblast agitation materials of Ukrainian People’s Party – Kostenko were placed on the big boards as “social” advertising. These materias were illegally placed in 2004 and actively used for Yanukovich campaign. As regards this PUOU Rivne oblast organization appealed to the law enforcing bodies. As a result Administratin of Fighting with Organized delinquency of Administration of Ministry of Home Affairs in Rivne oblast brought an action against officials of the communal and road transport services concerning illegal placement of the big boards mentioned above. During his business trip to Tutovychi village of Sarnenskyi rayon Director of rayon Department of Education of rayon state Administration Lavor put pressure on the head of the teaching department with a purpose to change her political convictions in favour of Ukrainian People’s Party, and also to subscribe for the paper “Volyn” that was connected with UPP. City of Sevastopol Head of Sevastopol city administration S.Ivanov leads the election headquarter of the bloc of his name. The first deputy Loktionov runs the headquarters of Yulia Timoshenko bloc. Director of Administration of Ecology and Natural resources of Sevastopol is in charge of the headquarters of the Green’s Party. The deputy of head of Sevastopol city state Administration H.Lutsay works for the SPU headquarters. Governor of the city council V.Borisov (People’s Democratic Party) heads the headquarters of the bloc of his name. There were advertising posters of the bloc “NE TAK” in the communal enterprise “Sevastopol city trolleybus”. Kharkiv oblast On January 25 in Chuguev there was a meeting of MP S.Havrysh with the representatives of the bloc “NE TAK” where most of them were teachers. The meeting was held during the office hours in the city club “Star”. The representatives of the budget field were invited with the help of the phoned telegrams disseminated from the city Department of Education. On January 22 MP of Ukraine S.Kosinov held a meeting with the activists of Chuguev in the building of city executive committee and during this meeting he agitated for People’s bloc of Litvin. Chuguev city governor H.Minaev was in the presidium of the event. Kherson oblast During the press-conference on January 19 governor of oblast state Administration B.V.Silenko openly evaluated chances of two candidates for the position of Kherson city governor – acting mayor Volodymyr Saldo and Artem Kianovskyi. The governor stated that he did not see any alternative for the acting Kherson city governor. On January 11 in the life time on the oblast state TV “Skifia” governor Silenkov agitated for the bloc “Our Ukraine”. State institutions, namely departments of the oblast state administration, city department of the Pension fund, department of Social Security sent official letters to the citizens in the envelops with the orange symbols and inscription “TAK!”. Chernivtsy oblast On January 29 there was a conference of Chernivtsy PUOU oblast organization on presenting candidates to the Chernivtsy oblast council. During this conference party members and non-party people famous in the region were awarded with different state honorary titles and merit awards according to the Decree of the President of Ukraine.
As a positive feature we should mention several cases of using administrative pressure on the subjects of election process, mass media or connected to them organizations. However, such cases happen.
Autonomous republic Crimea At the session of Nynzhnyogirskogo rayon council without corresponding agreement with collective of the edition, the decision was made about firing editor of Nynzhegorksiy rayon newspaper “Nizhniehorie” Valentin Solomyannyi. According to the words of Solomyannyi it could happen because of the appeal of the working collective to rayon council about excluding them from the founders of the newspaper, because many years from there were no money assessments from the budget for the newspaper. One more reason was publication in the newspaper a series of critical materials regarding leaders of the rayon government. The Committee on monitoring and freedom of mass media prepared a corresponding appeal based on the dismissal of the editor and pressure on mass media from the side of the local government to the Prosecuting Magistracy of Autonomous Republic of Crimea. In their appeal they also asked to check the facts of putting pressure on mass media by city government in Kirovskyi and Simferopolskiy rayon. Vinnytsia oblast Governor of the Vinnytsia oblast A.Dombrovskyi demanded in a categorical way from a head physician of the oblast children hospital Tetyana Antonets to leave the Party of Regions list to the oblast council.
There are cases of pressure on the private TV Company “Vinnychchyna” from the side of the leadership of the oblast state administration. They tried to deprive the TV company of their office, equipment and even license. Ivano-Frankivsk oblast On January 14 in Kalush town the light was turned off in the club “Youth” during the event of KostenkoPliushch bloc. The controller’s office explained that the disconnection was caused by planned repair works. However, the light was turned off on Saturday on one of the most favorite religious holidays in Prykarpattya (St. Vasyl the Great’s Day) and it was doubtful that the repair work could be done on such a day. Odesa oblast Employees of the law enforcing bodies of Bilgorod-Dnistrovskyi city department of the Department of the Ministry of Home Affairs of Ukraine in Odesa oblast conducted a search in the flat of the candidate for the MP position by the CPU list Fylyp Sydorenko (the first secretary of Bilgorod-Dnistrovsk city committee of CPU). According to the victim’s words the militia employees behaved rudely violating the law “About militia”. The CPU oblast headquarter stated that this search of the candidate’s flat was made by the rayon Office of public prosecutor’s order. Employees of the militia said that they received the information that there could be weapon and drugs in the Sidorenko’s flat.
Activity of the subjects of election process and agitation In January the party conferences on approving lists of the deputies to the local councils were actively held. The preparation of the lists is a non-transparent process almost in all political parties (election blocs). Three are no criteria for evaluation and no mechanism of candidates’ selection. In most cases the candidates’ lists are formed by the limited number of headquarter/party’s leaders. The same mechanism was used while selecting delegates for party conferences. Different sources of information reports that positions of the almost all political parties (blocs) are selling. Moreover, in most cases people who have never expressed preferences to definite political force are nominated as candidates of party lists to Parliamentary elections. Forming of election lists to local councils lead to the public conflicts and splits within the party organizations in the almost all regions. There were such cases when mass media representatives were not allowed to attend party conferences. We should add that the subjects of election process do not show willingness to demonstrate the approved candidates’ lists to the public.
Kyiv oblast In the end of December the activists of Brovary rayon and city, Bila Tserkva rayon and city, PereyaslavKhmelnitskiy rayon and city, Kyiv-Svyatoshynskyi and Ivankivskyi rayon organizations of PUOU in Kyiv oblast publicized a statement signed by the leaders of the enumerated organizations on behalf of nearly thousand members of the party “People’s Union Our Ukraine”. The statement said the decision about mass leaving the party was approved. This decision was caused by the actions of the chairperson of PUOU Kyiv oblast organization V.Litvin that started methodical campaign on changing leaders of rayon and city organization of POUO who as it mentioned in the statement “do not correspond to its format”. Luhansk oblast Most local party conferences ended up with conflicts within the parties. For example, the former secretary of CPU Luhansk city organization Yevgen Ruban left the party because he was not nominated to the local governor position. In a similar manner Volodymyr Medyannik, chairperson of PUOU Luhansk city branch was reelected. Several people left Party of Regions because they were dissatisfied with their places in the candidates’ lists to Luhansk city council. Rivne oblast A correspondent of “Tochka Zory-Ribvne” was not allowed to be present at the conferences of the rayon branches of Ukrainian People’s Party and Party of Regions. Order of accreditation for mass media representatives was not determined in advance by the organizers of the conferences, thus they violated the principle of publicity and transparency of election process.
Khmelnitskiy oblast By decision of the oblast political council chairperson of PUOU city branch I.Kulhuka was dismissed from the position. He was accused of an individual forming of election lists. On his side, Kulhuk blamed the chairperson of PUOU oblast branch Rostyslav Yarema for his desire to nominate “his” people and totally privatize the oblast organization. Chernivtsy oblast On the eve of the conference on nominating candidates to Chernivtsy city council from the People’s bloc of Litvin, the first deputy chairperson of the People’s bloc oblast organization V.Darchuk declared on the oblast TV that more than two thousand members of party would like to leave the party and enter SPU because of disagreement with Litvin and oblast party leaders’ policy. Executive committee of the People’s Party of Ukraine informed in its statement that some definite political forces used V.Darchuk in order to reduce the high rate of the bloc in the oblast. It was stated that Darchuk did not fulfill party responsibilities and was lead by his ambitions. Executive committee of the People’s Party of Ukraine disproved that two thousand members left the party (in a private conversation executive committee employees informed that only 18 people left the party). Chernigiv oblast Valeriy Dudka, head of administration of the Chernigiv oblast state administration, former chairperson of the “Batkivshchyna” oblast branch, left the party “Batkivshchyna”. This fact drew a wide reaction. Talking to journalists, Dudka expressed his disagreement with principles, which Yulia Timoshenko bloc used forming election lists at the local level.
In January an active stage of election campaign has started. About 15 parties (election blocs) conduct their campaign actively. Campaign has become more active at the local election, though there has been no official permission for starting local election campaign. This campaign can be divided into the following types: Mass dissemination of gifts by party activists free of charge, providing services and organizing entertaining events on the occasion of a New Year and Christmas holidays; Visits of party leaders and famous politicians to the regions; Nominating candidates to the local councils, informing about top five candidates and party lists in mass media; Holding mass events, rallies, etc. This type was not used broadly because of bad weather conditions and severe frost; Placing image and advertising articles, which can be classified as campaign materials, in mass media without appropriate designation; Placing big boards and other visual campaign materials.
Use of dirty technologies and “black PR” As CVU predicted in January the number of campaign materials that can be classified as “black PR” increased. As election campaign becomes more intensive, a tendency of using such materials becomes more dangerous. In most cases samples of such election materials were used against Yulia Timoshenko bloc, objects of “black PR” also were PUOU, Party of Regions, CPU, Litvin’s bloc, and individual candidates for the city governor positions.
Dnipropetrovsk oblast On January 22 on the 51 channel (it belongs to Dnipropetrovsk oblast state television) there was a program that was not mentioned in the announcement of TV programs. This program presented to the audience information that the President Yushchenko was a protégé of the U.S.A. During the entire program the state flag of Ukraine was replacing by the flag of the U.S. Creaters of the programs stated that people present on Maidan during the orange revolution were manipulated. This program was on TV without any name or credit. So, there was no information about either creator or output data. In the middle of January leaflets “Everything will be Donbas” were disseminated in Dnipropetrovsk. In the output data as creater was mentioned Mr. Bulgakov (responsible person for printing trades in the headquarters of Yanukovich in 2004) and place of publishing – Donetsk. However, the Party of Regions oblast chapter resigned its participation in preparing these leaflets. Apropos of this Party of Regions appealed to the law enforcing bodies.
Donetsk oblast In Horlika town the representatives of Yulia Timoshenko bloc were disseminating the leaflets “Think!” without the output data. These leaflets contained negative information about PR and Rinat Akhmetov. Zaporizhzhya oblast On December 28, 2005 in Lenin Avenue there were leaflets in a pedestrian subway, which depicted a noose and there was written “This is for you, Communist!” There were no output data. Kherson oblast Two types of leaflets were disseminated in Genicheskyi, Novotroitskiy rayons and Nova Kakhovka of the Kherson oblast. These leaflets contained like an appeal of Yanukovich to Ukrainian people: “Address of the leader of the Party of Regions V.F.Yanukovich to the citizens of the Russian speaking territories” and recommendations “How to behave during the Russian peacemaking troops mopping –up of your town from terrorists”. Such leaflets were promulgated in the other South oblasts of Ukraine. Khmelnitsk oblast At the beginning of January colorful leaflets of high quality were posted in the center of Khmelnitsk. City governor M.Ptystupa was depicted on the leaflets as a snowman with a carrot instead of nose and a bucket on his head. It was written there: “Citizens of Khmelnistk! Hurray! Winter has come finally!!!! Under the patronage of the city mayor”. Cherkasy oblast From January 10 the leaflets “All-Ukrainian social help ECO+25” were disseminated in the oblast. On behalf of Yulia Timoshenko bloc these leaflets called people suffered from harmful enterprises’ emissions upon getting compensations after registration in the nearest branch of Privatbank. Yulia Timochnko bloc’s headquarters publicized a statement, which contested the information of the bloc’s involvement in the leaflets preparation. Moreover, the statement called these materials to be a large-scale discreditable campaign of Yulia Timoshnko bloc.
Criminal interventions to election process Cases of using criminal methods of fight with political opponents are few in comparison with the previous elections. However, the tendency of spreading such methods in the Eastern and Southern oblasts of Ukraine (Donetsk, Luhansk, Mykolaiv oblasts) puts observers on their guard.
Donetsk oblast On January 25 two strangers tried to stop the agitation of one of the cars of Yulia Timoshnko bloc that were situated near the Central Palace of Marriages in Donetsk. The strangers tried to provoke a fight, threatened agitators, used obscene words regarding Yulia Timohsnko bloc leaders, damaged big boards with the picture of the leader of Yulia Timoshenko bloc and other agitation materials and ran away. Dnipropetrivsk oblast On January 19 in the Lenin central square during the mass meeting with PSPU Natalya Vitrenko the following incident took place. Three young men headed by a personal guard of the chairperson of Vitrenko bloc oblast headquarter Serhiy Kalinychenko captured using weapon an 18 years old student Liudmyla Krutko. She stood on the side with a blue-yellow flag. Threatening the girl with a gun, men lead the girl to the group of picketers and demanded from her to throw away the flag. After this Vitrenko’s representatives used force. As a result a co-worker of the press service of the oblast headquarters of Liberal party Viktor Orel got a head injury and nose fracture. Two assaulters were arrested by militia. It became known that Kalinychenko wore an entire arsenal – a gun with rubber bullets, knife, sporting gun, and four charges for it. After talking to the leader of PSPU Volodymyr Marchenko militia gave the assaulters go explaining it by the fact that KAlinichenko had permission for wearing a gun and sporting gun. It also turned out that Mr.Kalinichneko was an assistant of an MP of Ukraine. Mykolaiv oblast In Mykolaiv oblast there was an attack on the office of the communicational center of Citizens’ Association on supporting the oblast state administration programs “New power – new possibilities for citizens”. In this office the PUOU local headquarters was situated unofficially. Three young men passing by the building broke down a glass horseshoe – PUOU symbol that was placed on the façade of the building with agitation purpose. At night on January 26 head of the “PORA” Mykolaiv oblast election headquarter Vasyl Flyak was beaten down and robbed by two strangers. In Korabelnyi rayon of Mykolaiv city 3 big boards with picture of Yulia Timoshenko and advertisements of Yulia Timoshenko bloc were covered with paint. High level of the big boards’ placement and similar style of painting witnessed that it was a well-planed action.
Luhansk oblast An editor of the newspaper “Angry newspaper” (it is closely connected with PR) Serhiy Sorokin who has been beaten down earlier is threatened by a murder. The journalist said: “After publication of my interview in the newspaper “Rakurs” (Perspective) he was threatened on phone one more time. Now I am threatening by a murder.” Activists of Severodonetsk Ukrainian People’s Party local organization Olga Rudenko was beaten by three strangers. The woman got an arm and two fingers fraction. Strangers did not aim at robbing the woman as they did not take her money and an expensive cell phone. At night on January 12 strangers in masks attacked the hotel “Red Ray”, where the headquarters of PR was situated. They tear off the agitation posters “Future arises in the regions”. Assaulters introduced themselves as nationalists. Strangers threw stones to the windows of the Ukrainian People’s Party office in Zhovtnevyi rayon in Luhansk. Odesa oblast Several unknown people attacked the deputy of Odesa city council Ivan Stelya, member of PUOU. Currently the deputy is in reanimation. A criminal case is under control of the head of the oblast Ministry of Home Affairs.