Akhmetov and Kolomoiskiy initiated combat actions in the east of Ukraine over a deputy mandate

The victory in the confrontation with Kolomoiskiy allow Akhmetov to look in the future more optimistically

Photo: UNIAN

For two days the Central Election Commission has not tallied the results of the parliamentary elections based on party lists. The reason for this is the absence of data from the electoral constituency in the Donetsk oblast, where the work of the district committee was blocked by armed individuals.

Support from above

The last district from which the CEC did not receive full results was Constituency No. 59 in the city of Mariyinka in the Donetsk oblast. There the CEC still cannot enter the data of election protocols on the voting results into the Vybory information analytical system from approximately 20 district election commissions (DEC). “This is the last district where the results of the elections have not been fully entered into the Vybory system. The problem is that there are real combat actions around the district election commission,” member of the CEC Oleksandr Shelestov, who is managing the work of the commission in the Donetsk oblast, told Capital.

He explained that the premises of the DEC situated in the town of Velyka Novoselka is surrounded by armed people who are doing everything possible to block the work of the commission. “They are not allowing members of the commission and technical workers into their place of work. I already appealed to the SBU and the Prosecutor General’s Office on this matter. The CEC does not have its own special forces unit to unblock the commission and allow it to do its work,” said Shelestov, who cannot say for certain who is executing the siege of the DEC.

In the opinion of political analyst and head of the Donetsk Oblast Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU) Serhiy Tkachenko, the situation in the district is dictated by the struggle between first-past-the-post candidates, namely the mayor of the town of Kurakhovo Serhiy Sazhko and chief of the headquarters of the Dnipro-1 volunteer battalion Valentyn Manko. “According to data in the rubberstamped protocols, Sazhko is in the lead. However, he is being accused of sympathizing with the separatists. Volunteers initiated a forced opposition by blocking the DEC,” Tkachenko told the publication.

He said candidates attempted to gain control over the district commission even before the day of elections, which in Tkachenko’s opinion, the repeated replacements of members of the DEC proves. During the tallying of the votes the CEC prematurely cancelled the powers of 9 members of the district commission, but the court reinstated them. Now, the CEC is attempting to appeal this ruling in the Supreme Administrative Court.

Tkachenko assures that in fact there is a conflict in the district between the financial-industrial groups of Rinat Akhmetov and Ihor Kolomoiskiy, who are fighting for a deputy mandate for their candidates.

Tkachenko says Sazhko represents the team of Akhmetov, with whom he is connected through the local thermo-electric station (TES) owned by the industrialist, where the mayor of Kurakhov previously worked as the head of the workshop. He connects Manko to the sphere of influence of the Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast State Administration for rendering assistance to the Dnipro-1 battalion. “The battalion perceives the situation as a war against the old regime, which, in its opinion, Manko personfies. On the flipside, representatives of Sazhko say his rivals want to gain victory with force. Be that as it may, it is clear that Kolomoiskiy and Akhmetov are fighting for a future deputy,” said Tkachenko.

However, Commander of Dnipro-1 Yuriy Bereza told Capital that “there is no battalion there”. According to information the publication has, activists of the Right Sector party are also participating in blocking the work of the DEC. In his turn, press secretary of the party Artem Skoropadskiy assured Capital that the activists are not undertaking forceful actions. Noteworthy is that at the moment the publication went to print Sazhko ahead of his rival by 1,900 votes.

Risks of a repeat

Coordinator of Election Programs of the OPORA civilian network Olha Aivazovska sees a risk that the district commission in Constituency No. 59 will not be able to function. “It is highly possible that the election results in this district will not be established,” Aivazovska told Capital. She says the law allows the CEC to assume the functions of the commission and announce the voting results on the basis of all election documentation from that district.

Former head of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine Oleksandr Chernenko, who won a seat in the Verkhovna Rada on the list of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, also does not rule out that the CEC will be forced to announce its inability to establish the results of the elections. “In 2012 the Central Election Commission was unable to establish the voting results in a number of constituencies. One can refer to such a precedent, although even then this was not totally correct from a legal standpoint,” Chernenko told Capital.

Be that as it may, Shelestov assures that the Central Election Commission is not reviewing any “extraordinary” variants regarding Constituency No. 59. “It is too early to speak about all these scenarios. We have enough time to observe the provisions of the law on this procedure,” said Shelestov. Vice Chair of the CEC Andriy Mahera voiced a similar position at a briefing held yesterday.

Noteworthy is that the deadline for the official announcement of the elections to the Verkhovna Rada expires on November 10. Shelestov said the CEC is expecting a ruling of court in the nearest days that will allow for changing the composite of DEC No. 59 and conducting a final vote count.