In the Volyn region, facts about mass violations of election legislation and constitutional rights of citizens have become known. Heads of state administrations, various budgetary institutions (customs, social services), large industrial enterprises and factories are forcing their subordinates to obtain absentee certificates. Then each employee of the institution is obliged to hand over their absentee certificate to the head or a certain responsible person. Those who do not do this will be punished. Starting from personal insults and reprimands and ending with dismissal from work. Members of the Association of Young Reformers (AMoRe) - a partner of the all-Ukrainian civic initiative "I Know!" in Volyn - became aware of such facts. People themselves called the organization's office and reported these facts at Lutsk enterprises. From other reliable sources it became known that the same things are happening at the Volyn Customs. For the first days of the week, unscheduled meetings are planned in many district state administrations and other budgetary institutions, at which, as the employees themselves assume, interim results of this action will be summarized, that is, it will be determined how many employees have handed over their absentee certificates. Unfortunately, none of the citizens who called the hotline and reported these violations identified themselves or provided more precise information about who exactly and when did such things. As AMoRe activists assume, these facts may indicate that during the second round of elections another technology of election falsification will be applied - people will simply be deprived of the right to vote. Thus, in Western Ukraine, voter turnout will be reduced by several percent. And everyone knows whom voters in the West vote for. This will make it possible to reduce the number of votes for one of the candidates, and thus ensure the possible victory of his opponent. It is also entirely possible that the technology of using absentee certificates by other people will be applied. Another known fact of a violation that has become known is the organization of collecting blank protocols with the signatures of commission members, in particular in the city of Lutsk. Individual conversations are being held with each head of a precinct election commission who is a representative of non-opposition candidates, where money is offered for this falsification - the head of the commission is obliged to hand over several blank protocols, but on which the signatures of the majority of commission members will be placed. This may lead to another falsification - the substitution of protocols on voting results and, accordingly, influence on the final election result. These violations also have no documentary confirmation. The above facts are a gross violation of a number of provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On Elections of the President of Ukraine." They entail criminal liability. P.S. Unfortunately, as of today there is not a single protocol or oral testimony of voters about such things. People call anonymously and when an attempt is made to find out more detailed information, they hang up. Therefore, the above facts so far amount more to rumors, although similar information comes from various sources and from various districts. However, if this information has interested you, please use it in your work.
Mykhailo Shelep, Head of AMoRe, representative of the civic initiative "I Know!" in Volyn