Yushchenko’s secretariat suspects mass election fraud in eastern and southern Ukraine

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Secretariat of the Ukrainian president is concerned with the situation with preliminary outcomes of the parliamentary elections in eastern provinces and reminds of responsibility envisaged by the law for election fraud. The statement was made by the deputy head of the presidential secretariat, presidential envoy to the Constitutional Court Marina Stavniychuk and released by the presidential press office, a REGNUM correspondent informs.

“Undoubtedly, the data received through the Elections information and analytical system are just preliminary outcomes without juridical significance; however, recent election processes in Ukraine show: by the morning of the next day 8090% of the ballots are usually processed,” Stavniychuk believes. “The situation is quite critical, as by 10:00 a.m. of the day after the voting the amount of ballots processed is only 48%,” she continued. In this context, according to the official, eastern Ukrainian provinces stir special concern. “If in central and western Ukraine there are regions where over 70-80% ballots are cast, for example, in Luganshchina (Lugansk Region – REGNUM) the figure is only about 32%. Meanwhile, some eastern provinces were lagging behind in the process of ballot counting from the average showings throughout the country by 8-10% not only by the morning but within the night,” she concluded.

Stavniychuk reminded of the high responsibility, including criminal responsibility envisaged by the Ukrainian law for election fraud: “Everyone, who is determining the outcomes at districts in Donetsk, Lugansk, Odessa and other regions, must keep it in mind that the juridical responsibility is established for possible fraud and violations of the Ukrainian legislation.” Taking this into account, she noted, hopefully, each member of election commission in each constituency “will comprehend one’s responsibility and prevent from election fraud.”