Arsen Avakov: We ensured fair and safe elections. Together with you we are building a new culture of the electoral process
The Ministry of Internal Affairs coped with the tasks set - there were no mass violations of public order, and the minor violations recorded did not affect the election results. The Minister of the Interior is confident, that the staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will to be able to ensure calm and order in the country in the future.
During the presidential elections, the safety of citizens and the order at the polling stations were ensured by 133 thousand law enforcement officers. 197 DECs and almost 30 thousand polling stations were under round-the-clock security. National Police of Ukraine provided security and assistance to foreign observers.
International experts had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the work of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in particular, the Situation Center of the National Police, which is round the clock engaged in collecting, processing and responding appropriately to information about violations during elections.
A separate achievement of this election process was the public interactive system of fixing absolutely all violations “Elections-2019”. With it every citizen can track online every day of the election process and see what happened, what reaction of law enforcement officers followed.
To inform the citizens, the operational headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs functioned. A summary of the situation was carried out every 2 hours. For quick response to events, hot lines worked in non-stop mode. At the slightest suspicion of violation of the law, citizens could contact the call-center.
The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported, that within three days there was a record number of inaccurate reports about the mining of large government facilities and attacks on our systems through the VPN service from addresses allegedly registered in the United States and China, and in fact - in the Russian Federation. The joint forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Security Service of Ukraine, the State Committee on Communications and the CEC have coped with this situation.
Since the beginning of the election campaign, the police have received 9500 reports of violations. Of these, in the second round of voting, the National Police registered 1245 applications, which is half as much as in the first round.
Most of the messages related to illegal campaigning, photographing the ballot and damage to the voting forms. Also, there were reports of bribing voters. Recorded attempts to remove the ballot. The largest number of violations recorded in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv and Donetsk regions.
In the second round of the will, 17 criminal proceedings were opened, 12 of them - under art.158 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. (Provision of false information to the state registry authority or falsification of electoral documents, referendum documents, voting results or information from the state voter register). As for the members of the commission of the precinct who did not open today in the village of Lebedinsky, Donetsk region, criminal proceedings under art.157 of the Criminal Code. Guilty face up to 7 years in prison.
On the same day, the police recorded a violation of the law by one of the presidential candidates. The materials on the administrative violation were drawn up with the fact of the demonstration of the ballot/
Recall, that during the election campaign an illegal scheme was suppressed: under the guise of material assistance - at the expense of the state budget - local authorities bribed pensioners in Kiev, the Kiev region. A similar fact was revealed in the city of Vasilkov, Kiev region. According to the preliminary results of the investigation, on April 19, the mayor of Vasilkov measure of the General Prosecutor Office of Ukraine reported on suspicion of offenses under part 3 of art.27, part 3 of art.191, part 1 of art.357 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
“This is one of the examples of perfect crime prevention. We inform the public about all revealed offenses and react to them properly. The Interior Ministry will not allow the violation the letter of the law under any circumstances. The safety of citizens and order in the country is first and foremost,” said Arsen Avakov.
International observers noted, that the election of the President of Ukraine was well organized, and the minor violations recorded could not affect the election results. G7 Ambassadors in Ukraine praised the work of the CEC and law enforcement agencies in creating legal and safe conditions, which allowed Ukrainian citizens to fully exercise their democratic rights in an honest electoral process.