Violations of the day of pre-electoral silence, October 24, 2020

Local elections 2020: serious violations on the day of silence

As of 12:00, law enforcement officers have already drawn up 54 protocols for administrative offenses. This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Interior of Ukraine.

Back to topic Day of Silence before local elections: what does it mean?

What were the protocols for

• 42 – for the production or distribution of printed materials for the electoral campaign
• 8 – for violation of the restrictions on the conduct of electoral campaigns;
• 3 – for violation of state standards, norms and rules in the field of settlement welfare;
• 1 – violation of the procedure for placing campaign materials.

In which areas is the regime of silence violated

• In the Rivne region: 39 acts of rape;
• in the Kharkiv region – 22 facts;
• in the Kiev region – 13 facts;
• in the Lviv region – 13 facts;
• in the Dnipropetrovsk region – 12 facts;
• in the Donetsk region – 10 facts;
• in the Cherkasy region – 10 facts;
• in the Ternopil region – 8 facts;
• in the Volyn region – 7 facts;
• in the Chernivtsi region – 7 facts;
• in the Odessa region – 5 facts;
• in the Chernihiv region – 5 facts;
• in the Nikolaev region – 4 facts;
• in the Kirovograd region – 4 facts;
• in the Vinnytsia region – 3 facts;
• in the Zhytomyr region – 3 facts;
• in the Kherson region – 3 facts;
• in the Sumy region – 2 facts;
• in the Donetsk, Zaporozhye and Lugansk regions – 1 fact.

What other violations were recorded?

On the streets of the cities and towns of Ukraine, you can see a series of strange propaganda billboards. This is stated in the message of the Voters Committee of Ukraine.

There are no party names or logos on these billboards, but the images are completely done in the style of political forces (colors and fonts). Some of them also contain campaign slogans.

Rapes in the Kiev region

• The city of Kiev was “decorated” with billboards made in red and black colors. The tagline on them sounds like this: “Our proven reliable formula. Oct 25 = 24 + 1”. It is worth noting that VO “Batkivshchyna” has 24 issues in the bulletins of the Kiev City Council.
• In the urban-type settlement Gostomel, Kiev region, political posters with the slogan “Come and decide! October 25″. They are made in the style of the Sierva del Pueblo festival.
• In addition, billboards with the image of red hearts and the inscription “Gostomel in the Heart”, in the style of “Batkivshchyna”, were also photographed in Gostomel.
• In Boryspil, law enforcement officials exposed a network of voter bribery: the attackers collected personal data from local residents who were willing to “sell” their vote for 500 hryvnia and vote for a certain candidate. The 27-year-old organizer faces up to seven years in prison.
• According to Kiev Police Chief Andriy Krishchenko, they received 37 reports of violations of electoral law.

Rapes on the Dnieper

• In the Dnieper, on a quiet day, we noticed banners with the inscription “For the Dnieper. Vote”, made in the style of the “Proposition” party.
• The city also put up billboards with the slogan “Elections will end, life will go on,” in the style of the “Opposition Platform – For Life” party.

Rapes in the Khmelnytsky region

• In the urban-type settlement Belogorye, billboards in the style of the “For the Maybut” party were recorded.
• In Kamenets-Podolsk, billboards with the inscription “You will sleep 25, wake up in the 90” were put up.

Violations in Rivne

• In Rivne, billboards were marked with the words “We keep our word!”, Made in the style of VO “Svoboda”.
• In addition, billboards in the style of the Rivne Razom party were recorded in the city.

Rapes in other cities of Ukraine

• In Cherkasy, billboards were posted with the inscription “Your voice is your weapon. October 25 is the day you decide everything!”
• In Zhytomyr, billboards with the words “Vote” were recorded, made in the style of the “Proposition” party.
• In the city of Rubizhne, Lugansk region, there are billboards with the number “3” made in the style of the “Opposition Platform – For Life”.
• In Transcarpathia, the police arrested three criminals when they received part of the salary “- 17 thousand hryvnia. For this amount, they guaranteed the candidate an adequate number of votes in local elections.
• In Sumy province, a deputy from the regional council demanded a “sponsorship” of $ 4,000 from the director of one of the communal enterprises. The attacker even threatened to do him physical harm. The money was supposedly needed for the pre-election campaign.
• Social media reported the probable falsification of ballots in Mariupol. The police became interested in this fact and began to verify the information. The relevant data was entered in the Unified Registry of statements and messages from citizens about violations and other events.
• In Kropyvnytskyi, the police exposed a network of bribery of voters. For the support of one of the political parties and its candidates for deputy, the attackers offered 500 hryvnia. One of the criminals was arrested on October 24 during the transfer of 1,800 hryvnia to the voters. It should have been a deposit on the eve of the vote.
• In the Kherson region, the SBU exposed a large-scale voter bribery scheme. Citizens were paid hugely for artificially changing their address. More than 200 people have already done it. According to the operations, the plan was implemented in one of the tourist cities of the Kherson region. There, a local resident worked in the interest of one of the candidates for the post of head of the united land community.

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Campaign on the day of silence in Ukraine / Photo of the Voters Committee of Ukraine

That surrounds a day of silence

• Starting at 00:00 on Saturday, October 24, public services must remove politicians’ election campaign materials previously pasted in public places – billboards, banners, signs, transport advertising, shop windows and the like.
• At the same time, candidates and parties on this day Meetings with voters and distributing media campaigns are prohibited.… It is also forbidden to project films or campaign clips, distribute electoral brochures, posters, publicly call for votes “for” or “against” certain persons or political forces, as well as publicly evaluate their activities.
• Any political advertising is considered illegal and it will have unpleasant consequences for the candidates and parties in whose interest it is carried out.
• Day of silence does not apply to information that directly concerns the elections themselves – clarification of legislative norms, voting procedure, invitations to participate in elections.

Are they punished for campaigning on social media?

According to the legislation of Ukraine, only online media are responsible for campaigning on the day of silence… But for ordinary users, no punishment has been provided yet. The fact is that the users are not members of political parties, or the media, or advertising and public relations agencies, so they are not subject to the prohibition of electoral campaigns.

It’s true, the Ukrainians on Saturday however, it is worth refraining from avatars on social networks with a call to support one or another party or candidates in the elections.… Despite the lack of punishment, this is also a violation of the law.

What punishment threatens the rapists of the day of silence?

For violation of the day of silence, administrative responsibility was established. For campaigning, a fine in the amount of 510-850 hryvnia for ordinary citizensY 850 – 1360 hryvnia – for civil servants.

But the very fact of the violation must first be proven in court. When the police detect violations, they draw up a protocol and then the court makes a decision. But the court is unlikely to be able to prove that certain billboards or posters are related to the elections.

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