ELECTIONS 2006

Information was disseminated as follows:

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via the telephone line (information center phone number (0462) 625-381;

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via the Internet on websites and ;

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through the distribution of the center’s press releases to the media.

Below is the text of the press releases with information at 12:00, 15:00 and 20.00

SITUATION AT 11.00

According to voters, at about 2 o’clock on March 26, 2006, police officers guarding a polling station in the village of Vepryk, Bobrovytskyi district, Chernihiv region (precinct No. 12, TVO No. 213) stopped a car. The police officers, being intoxicated, began to attack the driver without reason, inflicted bodily harm on him, shot through the wheel with their service firearms and took away the mobile phone.

A call was made to the headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine regarding this fact and reported the event.

The main violation on the eve and at the beginning of the voting day was hidden agitation:

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On March 25, Socialist Party flags continued to hang on the balconies of houses along the central streets of Chernihiv, in particular along Victory Avenue and Komsomolskaya St.;

March 26:

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Several billboards advertising Garik Krychevsky’s new album with the support of the Green Party were recorded;

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On the approach to Chernihiv from the Gomel side, the entire highway hung with orange ribbons;

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A large number of billboards with social advertising “Chernihiv is a wonderful city”, which is associated with the election campaign motto of the mayoral candidate and current mayor of Chernihiv O. Sokolov, were recorded;

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Precinct No. 216, TVO No. 214 (Vertiivka village, Nizhyn district): the entire building of the local club, which houses the voting room, is covered with Socialist Party propaganda, about which a report was drawn up and a complaint was filed with the district election commission.

SITUATION AT 15.00

The main violations on the day of voting remain the presence of visual campaigning. Thus, in the city of Nizhyn and the village of Talalaivka, Nizhyn district (precinct No. 140, TVO No. 214), as well as in the town of Sedniv, Chernihiv district, the village of Dibrivne and the village of Smychyn, Gorodyansk district (precincts No. 35 and No. 36, TVO No. 212), a significant amount of posted campaigning for the NSNU and the PDP, as well as for the Socialist Party, was recorded.

Many polling stations lack information posters explaining the voting procedure and responsibility for violations of

legislation

on

elections, and on some even lack information posters of parties and blocs.

Thus, at polling station No. 1 of TVE No. 216 (Koryukivka city) there are no posters of parties (blocs) and posters about the voting procedure. Also, at this polling station, contrary to the law, police officers are present in the voting room. In addition, at polling station No. 2 of TVE No. 216 (Koryukivka city) there is the acting mayor, who interferes with the work of observers.

The Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights continues to receive calls from indignant voters who cannot find themselves on the voter lists, even after living at the same address for 10-20 years.

Conversely, many “dead souls” are included in the voter lists. To us a woman who received an invitation to vote for her late husband, who died in 1979 (!), applied.

At many polling stations there are huge queues. People are forced to stand in order to vote for 2-3 hours. At some polling stations, a truly critical situation is developing, when at such a pace not all voters will have time to vote. For example, at polling station No. 95 of district No. 214 (Nizhyn district) as of 3 p.m. only 470 voters out of 1,879 were able to vote. About a hundred people are waiting in line at the polling station.

The committee also received information about problems with ballot boxes at polling stations with a large number of voters. Due to the large number of ballots and their significant size, they simply did not fit in boxes. The commission members rammed the ballots in the closed boxes with auxiliary means through the holes. But according to some of them, the moment will soon come when even this will not help.

SITUATION AT 20.00

An alarming situation has developed in the Chernihiv district. According to voters:

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in the village of Ladynka (precinct No. 133, TVO No. 212) at the entrance to the polling station, the incumbent village head and candidate for head by the surname Morgun is campaigning for himself and for the NSNU;

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in the village of Mnyov (precinct No. 140, TVO No. 212) a candidate for the position of head of the village council, private entrepreneur Kleshnia I.Z., poured vodka for free to everyone who came in his own store, campaigning for his candidacy. There are many drunk people walking around the village;

In both cases, members of the commissions and observers who are fellow villagers, as well as representatives of the police, did not react to these cases in any way.

Absentee voting is practically not conducted. Due to the too strict provisions of the election law, only individual voters expressed a desire and were able to apply to the district commissions, and then get to the district center, where the polling stations for absentee voting are located. For example, on polling station No. 48 of the electoral district No. 217 (Borzna city), where voters are to vote,

included

in

the
list

of voters

on

the
basis

of absentee ballots, as of 18:00 only 1 voter out of 15 who came to the polling station with absentee ballots was able to vote. Due to the lack of information, voters simply did not know that, according to the law on elections of people’s deputies, they had to apply to the district election commission, which is located several dozen kilometers away in the city of Bakhmach.

According to the district election commission No. 212, in Chernihiv district there are no no voters registered to vote by absentee ballot.