\nREGIONAL REPORT \nbased on the results of long-term observation in the Volyn region \nof the elections of the President of Ukraine on January 17, 2010 \nperiod: November 15 - December 15, 2009 \n \n4 long-term observers of the Civil Network OPORA and the Association of Young Reformers, in the status of journalists of the publication "Point of Support," collected information in 5 territorial election districts of the Volyn region, which allowed obtaining the most complete picture of the election process. \nOPORA monitors the work of: 1) election commissions; 2) state authorities and local self-government bodies; 3) bodies maintaining the State Register of Voters; 4) election headquarters of candidates for the post of President of Ukraine; 5) other subjects of the election process and interested parties. \n \nObservation conclusions: \n1. District election commissions today find it difficult to fully cope with their powers. The reason for this is not only the largely unprofessional composition of these commissions, but also difficulties with the material and technical support of their work. \n2. State authorities and local self-government bodies did not prepare in advance and properly for the organization of elections and approached the performance of their powers formally. The authorities actually ignored the norm of the law on the need to create polling stations in every populated area. \n3. Officials of state authorities and local self-government bodies do not always adhere to the restrictions regarding participation in political activity during working hours and regarding the use of official transport and equipment. \n4. The bodies maintaining the State Register of Voters are trying to create proper conditions for voters to clarify information about them in the State Register of Voters. Due to the introduction of quarantine in the region because of the ARD epidemic, voter activity in clarifying information in the State Register of Voters in November significantly decreased. \n5. The election headquarters of candidates for the post of President of Ukraine care little about the selection and delegation of qualified persons to work in commissions, and have focused their attention only on the campaigning elements of the election campaign. \n6. Pre-election campaigning in the region is conducted by representatives of candidates for the post of President of Ukraine using methods of free or preferential provision of goods and services to voters, which may be interpreted as bribery. Cases of the use of "black PR" elements and unethical treatment of opponents in pre-election campaigning have become more frequent. \n7. The mass media for the most part engage in "replicating" campaign materials prepared by candidates' headquarters and devote very little space to objective coverage of the election campaign. \n8. Imperfect legislative regulation of the election campaign creates conditions under which the conduct of voting on January 17, 2010 may be complicated. \n \nRecommendations: \n1. To district election commissions, in order to comply with current legislation and ensure maximum publicity and transparency in their work: \n- when making all decisions, be guided only by the norms of the law, discarding emotions and instructions from election headquarters; \n- organize their work in such a way that all members of the commission work, and not only the leadership, since the volume of tasks and short deadlines for their implementation require greater efficiency in the work of commissions; \n- ensure strict compliance with the law, in particular regarding the advance notification of commission members about the agenda of meetings and draft decisions on initiated issues; \n- with the help of experienced commission members and those who attended the relevant seminar, organize training for other DEC members on the main issues of election legislation; \n- constantly exert pressure on state authorities and local self-government bodies in order to obtain proper premises, materials and other things necessary for the proper work of commissions. \n2. To state authorities and local self-government bodies: \n- in the shortest possible time, provide DECs with the necessary premises and equipment, as well as their security; \n- bring premises for the work of PECs and premises for voting into compliance with legal requirements; \n- assist DECs in opening accounts with treasury bodies. \n3. To officials of state authorities and local self-government bodies who intend to participate in the election campaign by campaigning for a certain candidate, to take leave for the election period and refrain from using their official position during the election period. \n4. To the bodies maintaining the State Register of Voters, to further intensify information work among voters, in particular explaining on what basis the voter's voting address is determined and to which institutions (OVR, VC, courts) one can apply in order to correct inaccuracies in the State Register of Voters and voter lists, and to prevent access to voters' personal data by third parties. \n5. To the election headquarters of candidates for the post of President of Ukraine: \n- ensure, where necessary, the prompt replacement of VC members in order to delegate responsible and experienced persons there; \n- conduct internal training for election commission members on the correct application of election legislation; \n- refrain from involving election commission members in pre-election work, including campaigning; \n- promote the participation of candidate representatives – PEC members (after the creation of PECs) in meetings of the relevant commissions; \n- refrain from campaigning through the free or preferential provision of goods and services to voters; \n- agree on common ethical principles for conducting the election campaign in the region. \n6. To the mass media, to pay more attention to covering the election campaign in the region, and also to devote more materials to analytical and comparative analysis of the programs and real steps of candidates for the post of President of Ukraine. \n7. To representatives of all political forces and public organizations of the region, to initiate before the People's Deputies of Ukraine the issue of urgent consideration and introduction of amendments to the election legislation. \n \n-------------- \nOPORA is a non-governmental, non-partisan and financially independent all-Ukrainian network of public activists. We united with the aim of activating public participation in the political process by developing and implementing models of citizens' influence on the activities of state authorities and local self-government bodies in Ukraine. \n \n1. Work of district election commissions \n \nThe district election commissions of TEDs No. 19-23 operating in the territory of the Volyn region were formed by Resolution of the Central Election Commission No. 381 of November 27, 2009. The locations of these commissions, which were determined during the formation of the districts, are the cities of Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Horokhiv, Kovel, Lutsk and the urban-type settlement of Manevychi. \n \nAll 5 DECs were formed with more than 30 members (the smallest DEC of TED No. 21 – 31 persons). It is worth noting that 3 candidates for the post of President of Ukraine (Hrytsenko A.S., Pabat O.V., Riabokon O.V.) submitted fewer candidates to the CEC for the composition of the region's DECs than they were entitled to. \nMost leadership positions (2 positions each - chairman and secretary) in the region's DECs were obtained by candidates for the post of President of Ukraine Tymoshenko Yu.V., Yushchenko V.A. and Tiahnybok O.Ya. \nInstead, 6 candidates remained without leadership positions in DECs in Volyn: Hrytsenko A.S., Kostenko Yu.I., Pabat O.V., Protivsikh V.V., Ratushniak S.M. and Riabokon O.V. \n \nAll 5 commissions held their first meetings on time – on November 30. Already at these meetings, cases were recorded of individual commission members refusing to perform their duties. The least "fortunate" in this matter was DEC of TED No. 22, where the chairman, deputy and secretary of this commission successively refused to perform their duties. \n \nAlmost all DECs were characterized by the mistake when representatives of state authorities and local self-government bodies participated in commission meetings without the appropriate voting by DEC members. In all cases this was explained by the fact that the latter informed the commission about the material and technical working conditions. \n \nAs the first meetings and subsequent work of the commissions showed, the personnel potential of the region's DECs, unfortunately, does not fully correspond to the level of responsibility and workload placed on these commissions. Most DEC members do not have the relevant qualifications and work experience; many of them are participating in the work of election commissions for the first time. In such a situation, the large numerical composition of the commission hinders the efficient work of the DEC. In those commissions where the chairmen have relevant work experience, namely the chairmen of DECs of TEDs No. 19 and 20, who are working in leadership positions in election commissions for the third time, the commissions work more or less cohesively. In the others, the situation is somewhat more complicated, since the commissions have been working for only three weeks, so neither mutual trust nor cohesion in their work is yet visible. On average, 80% of their members attend commission meetings. However, at the meetings themselves, most commission members are passive and do not take an active part in discussing draft decisions. In other situations, commission members behave too emotionally, creating conflicts and misunderstandings. \n \nAll commissions conduct their activities openly; journalists, authorized representatives of candidates, and international observers are admitted to meetings. All commissions keep minutes of meetings. However, draft decisions and agendas are provided to commission members just before the meeting itself, rather than a day before it, and commission decisions are not posted on notice boards. The main deadlines established by law for certain procedures are observed by the DECs. In particular, from December 7 to 9, 1133 polling stations were created, of which 1100 were ordinary and 33 special. \n \nA positive aspect is that some commission members attended training for DECs organized by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine and the CEC. Thus, a third of the commission members improved their level of knowledge about election legislation. However, this is not enough for the quality work of district election commissions. \n \n2. State authorities and local self-government bodies \n\nUnfortunately, despite the fact that the election campaign started back on October 19, 2009, the authorities were not fully ready to create all the conditions necessary for the work of commissions. \nA number of unresolved issues remain even today. For example, offices for the work of DEC of TED No. 22 were being determined right up to this week. Renovation is still ongoing in some offices. \nDEC of TED No. 23 also does not yet have adequate premises and is also awaiting completion of renovations. \nIn the premises of DEC of TED No. 19 the air temperature is low; commission members are forced to work in outer clothing. DEC of TED No. 20 is forced to move to another premises across the road for holding meetings. \nOther technical equipment also does not always meet the established requirements. \nEven greater difficulties will most likely arise after the creation and start of work of precinct election commissions. For their normal activity, and in particular for the organization of voting, the premises must also meet certain requirements established by the CEC. \n\nLocal self-government bodies of the region also delayed in submitting proposals to DECs regarding the creation of polling stations. According to the Calendar Plan of the main organizational measures for the preparation and conduct of the elections of the President of Ukraine, local self-government bodies were supposed to prepare the relevant proposals by November 17, and submit them to DECs immediately after the creation of the relevant commissions. Instead, in some places such proposals were submitted as late as December 9, when the deadline for DEC decisions on the creation of polling stations was expiring. Therefore, DECs did not even have time to verify these proposals regarding the completeness and accuracy of the information submitted. \nThe norm of the law on the need to create polling stations in every populated area was actually ignored by local self-government bodies and district election commissions. In this case, they used the practice from 2004. \n\nAuthorities provided sufficiently well for the work of the bodies maintaining the State Register of Voters, in particular allocated a sufficient number of offices and office equipment. \nAs for the powers of authorities to designate and properly equip places for placing campaign materials, in larger populated areas of the region these issues are regulated – a sufficient number of pillars and stands have been installed there; in smaller populated areas, namely villages, such places are scarce – at most one notice board for the entire village. \n\n3. Officials of state authorities and local self-government bodies \nOfficials do not always adhere to the restrictions regarding the use of their official position during the election period. \nThus, according to information from representatives of a number of political parties, there were allegedly facts when: \n- the chairman of the Liubeshiv district council, who is also the head of the local BYuT cell, personally delivered land acts to villagers and emphasized that for these documents they should thank him with votes during the elections (website of the Volyn regional branch of the Party of Regions); \n– the secretary of the Volodymyr-Volynskyi city council, who heads the local headquarters of candidate Yu. Tymoshenko, while not yet on leave, used an official car for election matters (according to information from the district cell of the SPU);\n- the chairman of the Manevychi district council regularly (including during the performance of official duties) visits the election headquarters of Yu. Tymoshenko, which he actually manages (according to information from the district cell of the PR).\nIt is also known that the chairman of the Volyn regional council, Anatolii Hrytsiuk, who heads the headquarters of candidate Yu. Tymoshenko in the region, participated in the opening of a gas pipeline in the village of Kobche of the Rozhyshche district, although at that time he was on leave. Along with this, during the event BYuT activists held party flags. \nAccording to certain information, the chairman of the Volyn regional state administration, Mykola Romaniuk, a member of the "Our Ukraine" party, is also participating in the work of another candidate's headquarters - V. Yushchenko. However, as of today, no facts of abuse of official position by him are known.\nIt is worth noting a violation of these restrictions also by President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko, who, while on a working visit to the Volyn region on December 8, 2009, during the opening of the first phase of the food production factory of OJSC "Volynholding" of the "Nestlé" corporation in Ukraine and during the solemn academy dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the formation of the Volyn region and the 810th anniversary of the Volyn-Galician principality, negatively assessed the activities of Prime Minister Yu. Tymoshenko, which may be interpreted as campaigning against a candidate.\n\n4. Bodies maintaining the State Register of Voters\nOVRs of the region are for the most part open to journalists. Although some of them prefer a formal method of communication – that is, through submitting information requests. \nThe premises of the OVRs are located in accessible places. The work schedules of these bodies are sometimes extended; in some OVRs employees are on duty even on Saturday.\nOVRs are trying to create proper conditions for voters to clarify information about them in the State Register of Voters. Although in rural areas this work is carried out somewhat slowly, since it is difficult for voters to apply to the OVR located in the district center. Therefore, some OVRs, through village heads, are trying to collect applications regarding inaccuracies in the register. \nOnly isolated complaints about the work of the OVR in the city of Kovel were recorded, in particular from elderly people who claim that they have to write applications several times to correct their information in the State Register of Voters. \n\nLocal OVRs are also trying to work in the direction of disseminating information among voters about the need to clarify information in the State Register of Voters. In particular, among the methods and means of such work: publications in local media, posting information on the official websites of city and district councils, posting announcements in educational institutions and state authorities. In Lutsk, information leaflets and posters informing voters about the need to check information about themselves in the State Register of Voters are posted in public transport.\n\nAlthough it must be noted that the level of voter activity in clarifying personal information in the State Register of Voters has significantly decreased due to the introduction of quarantine in the region because of the ARD epidemic. For example, if (according to information from 12 of the 20 OVRs operating in the region) in the period from September 10 to October 19, 2009 (from the time of sending personal notifications to the start of the election campaign) 4802 Volyn residents applied to OVRs, then in the period from October 19 to November 27, 2009 (from the start of the election campaign to the end of quarantine) – only 2455 persons.\n\n5. Work of election headquarters of candidates for the post of President of Ukraine and features of pre-election campaigning\nElection headquarters care little about the selection and delegation of qualified persons to work in commissions, and have focused their attention only on the campaigning elements of the election campaign. \nThe headquarters of all the highest-rated candidates in the region are actively working in Volyn, in particular: Tymoshenko, Yanukovych, Yushchenko, Lytvyn, Yatseniuk, Tiahnybok, Tihipko, Hrytsenko, Symonenko and others. \nMainly, these headquarters employ representatives of the relevant parties and organizations represented by the respective candidate for the post of President of Ukraine. Their headquarters are in every district center and city. They consist mainly of 3-5 persons working on an unofficial basis. Most of them already have experience in election work.\nThe work of authorized representatives at this stage mostly comes down to submitting proposals regarding candidates to PECs and representing the candidate's interests during public events.\nAlmost all headquarters, despite the presence of party organizations, involve hired workers in campaigning – wage earners, who are formed mainly from among students and unemployed persons. \nAmong the forms of pre-election campaigning, the most popular are: distribution of campaign materials from tents, placement of outdoor advertising: billboards, citylights, posters, etc., placement of campaign materials in the media. \nSuch a type of campaigning as door-to-door campaigning is so far used only by campaigners of candidate Yu. Tymoshenko (in the form of surveys).\nAlso, Yu. Tymoshenko's headquarters actively works with specific social strata, in particular with heads and deputies of local self-government bodies and representatives of the intelligentsia and public organizations. For this purpose, in particular, founding meetings were held in November on the creation of the regional branch of the All-Ukrainian Association of Village and Settlement Councils and the People's Assembly of Volyn.\n\nCampaigning in the region is conducted by representatives of candidates for the post of President of Ukraine using methods of free or preferential provision of goods and services to voters, which may be interpreted as bribery. \nThus, a regional council deputy from BYuT, Valentyna Blinova, on November 21 met with voters of the Stara Vyzhivka district for the purpose of transferring funds collected from charitable and membership contributions of the regional cell of the "Batkivshchyna" party for the construction of a chapel of Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olha in the village of Borzova of the Stara Vyzhivka district, and later donated poetry collections by Volyn authors and a full set of the socio-political and literary journal "Volyn" to the vocational-technical lyceum of the Stara Vyzhivka district. Earlier, Valentyna Blinova transferred children's encyclopedic literature to the Dubechne village library. Also, with the assistance of the regional council deputy, the Stara Vyzhivka children's music school received a domra, which is necessary for teaching young musicians. \nIn early November, members of the Lutsk city party organization of the VO "Batkivshchyna" celebrated the Day of Ukrainian Writing – they donated collections of books by Volyn writers to 16 libraries of the city of Lutsk. In addition, representatives of the "Batkivshchyna" party gave disposable bandages to all teams in the library sphere.\nAt the request of the first deputy chairman of the Committee on Budget Issues of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, People's Deputy of Ukraine from the Yuliia Tymoshenko Bloc Yevhen Kyry lchuk, LLC "Pharmaceutical Company "Maksyma" (Kyiv) provided Volyn with humanitarian aid worth 150 thousand hryvnias to overcome the flu epidemic. The humanitarian aid was transferred to the Volyn regional infectious disease hospital and the Volyn regional children's territorial medical association. These institutions received the preparations "Amizon" (972 packages each), "Arbidol" (500 packages each), "Nazalong" (1500 packages each), "Laferon-farmbiot" (95 packages each), "Loratek" (500 packages each), "Maxicold" with orange, lemon and raspberry flavor (312 and 255 packages respectively), as well as a dietary supplement based on activated carbon "Sorbex" (100 packages each) and disposable masks (500 pieces each). \nMembers of the public organization "Front of Changes" brought a set of new children's desks to the kindergarten in the village of Sadiv of the Lutsk district.\nAll this information is made public by the headquarters themselves through the media, that is, they see no violation in this, although such actions may be interpreted as bribery.\n\nCases of the use of "black PR" elements and unethical treatment of opponents in pre-election campaigning are becoming more frequent in the region.\nThus, during the visit of President of Ukraine V. Yushchenko to the region, BYuT representatives set up party tents in the places where the President stayed and organized mini-rallies in support of Yu. Tymoshenko. Thus they created a negative background for events involving the President.\nPeople's Deputy and BYuT member Yevhen Kyry lchuk during a press conference informed journalists of some facts known to him from the biography of candidate for the post of President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, in particular naming 5 criminal cases in which V. Yanukovych was allegedly involved. \nIn Lutsk, leaflets with the slogans "Only not Zek" and "STOP Zek" were pasted on power poles – without imprint data and circulation but with the logo of "People's Self-Defense." On one of them, the profile of a person resembling one of the candidates is visible.\n\n7. Mass media\nThe media for the most part engage in "replicating" campaign materials prepared by candidates' headquarters and instead devote very little space to objective coverage of the election campaign.\n\n8. Imperfection of legislative regulation of the election campaign \nLet us give just a few examples of how the current law complicates the conduct of elections: \n- One of the first to be violated was the norm of the Law of Ukraine "On Elections of the President of Ukraine" concerning the procedure for creating polling stations: according to Part 6 of Art. 20 of the Law of Ukraine "On Elections of the President of Ukraine," proposals for the creation of ordinary polling stations are submitted to district election commissions by executive committees of village, settlement, and city councils no later than sixty days before election day. That is, such proposals should have been with the DECs by November 18, 2009. However, it was physically impossible for the executive committees of local councils to do this, since the DECs were created, in accordance with Part 2 of Art. 23 of the Law of Ukraine "On Elections of the President of Ukraine," on November 27, 2009, and therefore there was no one to receive the relevant proposals before November 27. And although the CEC by its Resolution No. 141 of September 30, 2009 in the Calendar Plan of the main organizational measures for the preparation and conduct of the elections of the President of Ukraine noted that by November 17, 2009 local self-government bodies were only supposed to prepare proposals for the creation of ordinary polling stations – the norm of the law on the deadlines for submitting such proposals was violated. - A gap in the law is the absence in Part 7 of Art. 20 of the Law of Ukraine "On Elections of the President of Ukraine" of any mention of who and when was supposed to submit proposals to the DEC regarding the creation of special polling stations. The CEC was forced to regulate this issue at its own discretion in the Recommendations on the creation of ordinary and special polling stations for the elections of the President of Ukraine on January 17, 2010, which were approved by Resolution No. 314 of November 11, 2009. The CEC determined that the relevant proposals are also submitted to the DECs by executive committees of village, settlement, and city councils.\n- The procedure for the precinct election commission to adopt a decision on introducing changes to voter lists is unclear. In the case of introducing changes to the preliminary voter list – the PEC can only apply to the relevant bodies maintaining the State Register of Voters regarding the clarification of information. \nIn the situation with introducing changes to the clarified voter list – the procedures that the PEC can resort to, unlike the old version of the Law of Ukraine "On Elections of the President of Ukraine" and the current Law of Ukraine "On Elections of People's Deputies of Ukraine," are not specified, and the existing norms contradict each other: - thus, according to item 4 of Part 2 of Art. 35 of the Law of Ukraine "On Elections of the President of Ukraine," the basis for introducing changes to the clarified voter list is a PEC decision. In turn, Part 3 of Art. 35 of the Law of Ukraine "On Elections of the President of Ukraine" states that on the grounds specified in Part 2 of Art. 35, a PEC decision is not adopted; - item 1 of Part 1 of Art. 27 of the Law of Ukraine "On Elections of the President of Ukraine" includes among the powers of the PEC the introduction of changes to the voter list. However, the law lacks norms indicating in which cases the PEC can exercise this power. \nAnd although, as can be seen from the above, the PEC actually has no possibility of introducing changes to voter lists, Part 5 of Art. 32 of the Law of Ukraine "On Elections of the President of Ukraine" is alarming, as it grants a citizen the right no later than one hour before the end of voting to submit a complaint to the PEC regarding inaccuracies in the voter list. After all, referring to this norm of the law, election commissions may adopt decisions on introducing changes to the clarified voter lists on voting day. We saw a negative example of similar actions during previous elections, when election commissions often ignored the norm of another election law prohibiting the introduction of changes to voter lists on voting day. That is, the contradiction of various norms of the Law of Ukraine "On Elections of the President of Ukraine" leads to discrepancies and different interpretations of the content of the law. And here even CEC Resolutions do not provide an answer.\n- When amending certain articles of the law, the deputies did not bring them into conformity with each other. It is unclear what number of PEC members is the minimum for its formation: - thus Part 1 of Art. 24 of the Law of Ukraine "On Elections of the President of Ukraine" states that the PEC is formed in the number of at least 12 persons; - and Part 8 of Art. 24 of the same law states that if "the number of persons proposed for the composition of the election commission is less than 10 persons," then the commission is formed in the number of 9 persons.\n- Also alarming is the wording of the new article of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, namely Art. 158-1 "Voting by a voter at a polling station more than once." From this formulation, one may get the impression that multiple voting at different polling stations will not be a violation of the law, and therefore does not entail criminal liability. - The current Law of Ukraine "On Elections of the President of Ukraine" does not allow public organizations to observe the course of the election process. \nThe imperfection of the Law of Ukraine "On Elections of the President of Ukraine" leads to the fact that many issues are forced to be regulated by the CEC through its resolutions, although according to Art. 14 of the Law of Ukraine "On Elections of the President of Ukraine," the preparation and conduct of elections of the President of Ukraine are regulated primarily by laws. \nThe introduction of amendments to the current Law of Ukraine "On Elections of the President of Ukraine" is also prompted by the need to implement the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (case on introducing amendments to certain legislative acts of Ukraine regarding the elections of the President of Ukraine) of October 19, 2009 No. 26-rp/2009.\n\nIn our opinion, the two political forces represented in parliament by the largest factions must agree on the position that the elections of the President of Ukraine must take place in accordance with election legislation that creates equal opportunities for all participants in the elections. Only under these conditions will the election results be legitimate in the eyes of Ukrainian society and the world community. \n