Ukrainian opposition accuses authorities of trying to falsify election results

The Ukrainian political opposition has said on Thursday the pro-government forces were trying to falsify the results of the local elections that took place on October 25. According to head of the Kiev branch of the Opposition Bloc party Alexander Puzanov, irregularities “were registered at many polling stations” and “vote count was not conducted in a proper way.”

“I have documentary evidence proving that the number of ballot papers taken out of the ballot boxes proved far bigger than the number actually handed out,” Puzanov said, referring specifically to the results of voting in Kiev. “In all districts there were people who wanted to score more votes in a fraudulent way. If the overall number of votes scored by a party is no more than 6 or 7% and exceeds 20 and even 50% at one polling station, that is strange, to say the least.”

“As a whole, the Opposition Bloc has overcome the 5-percent barrier in Kiev and will be represented in the Kiev City Council by its own parliamentary faction,” Puzanov said. In his opinion, such a result is not to the liking of the current authorities. “The authorities believe that there should be no Opposition Bloc in Kiev. We constantly register attempts to steal the votes of Kiev residents in support of our political force and significantly downgrade our rating,” Puzanov said.

Meanwhile, the headquarters of the Petr Poroshenko Bloc (Solidarity) party admitted its failure at the local elections. According to some estimates, the pro-presidential party will secure 18% of votes on the average. The only region where Poroshenko will not need allies to form the majority is the Vinnytsia region in west-central Ukraine.