Kyiv, 1 April 2014 – Speaking at the Ukraine Crisis Media Center, Head of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, Oleksandr Chernenko touched on the issues of electoral campaign progress, possible risks of election sabotage and probability of using and methods for combatting electoral fraud.
According to Mr. Chernenko, a record-breaking number of 46 presidential candidates have registered with the Central Election Commission (CEC) so far. Twelve of the candidates, however, were rejected while the rest are being checked for compliance with paperwork requirements and payment of a UAH 2.5M deposit. Mr. Chernenko expects that full registration will be completed before April 4 at which point there will be about 30 candidates left. “Election campaign is underway, and it has entered its intensive phase,” he said, “And even though the candidates have been allowed to register since early March, it was not until 2-3 days before the deadline that dozens of contenders started filing applications.”
Oleksandr Chernenko believes that the great number of presidential candidates doesn’t do any good for the voters. “The voting ballots will be longer, more money will be spent on the election, and despite what the CEC said the other day, cost-cutting now appears to be impossible,” says Mr. Chernenko. Head of the Voters Committee says that such a large number of candidates may be due to a range of reasons: “We expect there to be a lot of dummy candidates registering with the sole purpose of obtaining quotas at the electoral commissions which they will then sell to other candidates. Others run for president to advertise their political project ahead of the parliamentary election. Some of the candidates have problems with the attorney’s office and are using this opportunity to get out of trouble for the next 2 months.” Mr. Chernenko also doesn’t rule out that several candidates may withdraw from the presidential race “at their own request”.
Numerous groups of domestic and international observers are expected to oversee the April election: more than 50 international observers have already registered, over 1000 are expected to be sent by OSCE and over 5000 will be delegated by various Ukrainian NGO’s, joined by activists and others.
At any rate, all election processes are going as scheduled, the necessary funds have been allocated and there are currently no preconditions for cancellation or postponement of the election due on 25 May. “Our main problem and risk remains the possible interference on the part of Russia,” said Oleksandr Chernenko, “They may try to stage any kinds of provocations, block polling stations, put the lives of election commission members and voters in danger, spoil voting ballots etc., all for the purpose of having grounds to declare Ukraine’s presidential election illegal. But we are aware of this and I think that the Security Service of Ukraine has enough time to neutralize these threats, maybe even with the help of the National Guard.”
The CEC does not yet have a ready solution that would allow the citizens of the occupied Crimean territories to participate in voting at the Ukrainian presidential election. One of the possible options is to arrange polling stations in the bordering regions. Georgia and Moldova have had similar experience. “We need to secure the right of the Ukrainian citizens to express their opinion,” said Mr. Chernenko, “even if it’s just one person, we need to organize this. We still have time and we can do it.”
As regards the use of administrative resources, bribery of voters and other electoral fraud techniques, Oleksandr Chernenko believes that these actions will not play a crucial role. “None of the candidates has monopoly over these resources, like it was in 2010. The vertical power structure is extremely shaky and the level of public consciousness is so high that I cannot imagine anyone of the candidates putting any pressure on the voters,” assured Mr. Chernenko, “But this election will resemble the one held in 2010 in the nature of information war between the candidates. There will be no competition of electoral programs, instead it will all come down to accusations or creating false problems or sensations to distract voters from discussing the real problems. What we will see is a ‘no-rules fight’ with journalists being responsible for a great part of it, especially the ones working for online news services since they are now highly trusted by the citizens.”
According to Oleksandr Chernenko, in order to counter electoral fraud, a list of members of election commissions who directly violated the law during previous elections will be published on Friday on the official website. The list will also be distributed to all presidential candidates to prevent those persons from participating in the election process again.
Oleksandr Chernenko is the Head of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, public figure, political expert and journalist. He worked as a political editor at the Power of Money journal, political journalist at the Focus journal, editor at Channel 5 and published his work in dozens of nation-wide and regional mass media. As the Head of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, he is actively promoting the electoral legislation reform, implementing the open-list voting system in Ukraine and adopting the Electoral Code.
