CEC head suspects violations in individual constituencies in Rada election

Chairman of the Central Election Commission Volodymyr Shapoval said there is every reason to suspect that there were certain violations in individual election constituencies, but the CEC seeks to establish the exact returns of the elections by all legitimate means.

"The commission seeks to establish the election results by all legitimate means. But there are grounds to suspect certain violations in troubled districts. This is what impedes us ... There is a guarantee concerning the observance of the law by the CEC in this process. The commission will have protocols not only from district election commissions and but those from precinct election commissions, and each of them will be thoroughly checked," Shapoval said on Friday at a meeting with the head of a long-term election observation mission of OSCE/ODIHR, Audrey Glover, the press service of the Central Election Commission reported.

The officials discussed the situation around district election commissions number 14, 132, 197 and 223. First of all they discussed the tabulation process and determining the election results in single-member constituencies.

Glover asked why the official Web site of the CEC had changed the results of the vote on some of these districts, to which the head of the Central Election Commission said that preliminary information regarding the vote count in districts, comes to the CEC through the Vybory (Election) electronic system is from district commissions.

"This Web site provides only the information which is supplied by relevant district election commissions. These facts raise many questions, and I am not sure that this is a simple error," Shapoval said.

According to the CEC press service, Glover said: "We believe in the objectivity of the Central Election Commission. And we know that you are making a great effort to ensure the transparency of the electoral process."

At the end of the conversation she said that the final report of the OSCE/ODIHR observation mission about the parliamentary elections in Ukraine would be released in two months.

In turn, the CEC chairman said he had no doubt as to the objectivity of the report, and expressed the hope that Ukraine would implement the recommendations of the OSCE.