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The Central Election Commission set a Feb. 1 deadline for registering international observers for the second round. The last day for submitting applications is Jan. 30. The CEC also resolved that Ukrainian citizens and foreigners who speak Ukraine can accompany an international observer as translators, but only one translator per observer.
MPs from the Regions forced there way into the office of the Kyiv Appellate Administrative Court in the morning hours of Jan. 27. KAAC Chief Justice Anatoliy Denisov said that 8.15 am, Regions MPs Miroshnychenko and Bondyk came to his office and told him that they will stay until the elections are over to keep tabs on the court’s work. The Regions initially denied they had done so, but by day’s end left the court building.
Unlike in 2004, when the Supreme Court of Ukraine was the final arbiter in the elections, this time around the Kyiv Appellate Administrative Court and the Higher Administrative Court are the venues for filing electoral claims.
Veteran election watchdog NGO Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU) added its voice to the chorus of analysts who think that the current political battle will continue long after Election Day.
“The situation will be complicated and I don’t think that it will come to a third round of elections, because there will be a stalemate and nobody will know for sure who won the elections… this will last several weeks until a resolution is found that will likely be more political than legal,” CVU head Oleksandr Chernenko said in an interview on Jan. 27. He said that the race is so close that sociologists are getting cold feet about conducting any exit polls.
CEC breakdown
CVU’s Chernenko thinks that the Central Election Commission will come under immense pressure and “even the most radical scenarios are possible – the blocking of CEC work by members of parliament and legal challenges of the election results in the courts.”
He explained that the CEC needs a quorum of ten members to convene, and that both Byut and the Regions have enough seats on the commission to quash the necessary quorum.
The commission currently has 14 members – a vote on the 15th member is expected in parliament tomorrow. Of that number, eight are considered loyal to Yanukovcyh: Tatyana Lukash, Mykhailo Okhendovsky, Tamara Astakhova, Oleksandr Shelestov and Yuri Danilevsky were appointed on the Regions’ quota; Communists Bronislav Raykovsky and Yuri Donchenko, along with Socialist Oleksandr Chupakhin are considered loyal to Yanukovych.
Byut has five members on the CEC: Zhanna Usenko-Chorna, Yulia Shvets, Valeriy Sheludko and Ihor Zhydenko; Andriy Mahera, appointed by “Our Ukraine” is considered Yulia-friendly as well.
The chairman, Volodymyr Shapoval, is considered to be neutral, according to the CVU.
In other words, Byut can also make sure that no quorum is formed, Chernenko explained.
Falsification alert
Concerning possible falsification of election results, the CVU head said to watch out for the deliberate damage of ballot boxes and/or the ballot box seals that will allow the stuffing of ballots.
“For many the second round will be conclusive and the situation when the difference between first and second place will be far lower than in round one, and every vote will count, things like sabotage and falsification are very possible and will be used,” Chernenko said. |
