A million fewer
Central Electoral Commission releases tally of Ukrainian voters
Good news from Yaroslav Davydovych, chairman of Ukraine’s Central Electoral Commission: the final tally of voters is ready. As of Nov. 1, Ukraine has 36,545,950 citizens with the right to vote, compared to last year’s 37,656,707 registered voters. Davydovych attributes the discrepancy of over one million to the fact that “in the past voter rolls were not compiled from scratch but merely updated.”
The CEC did not compile the rolls itself, but delegated this onerous task to local government bodies. All of them submitted their computations on time — before 11 a.m. on Oct. 31, which greatly surprised the CEC chairman: “I am knocking on wood for our election campaign to continue as smoothly.”
Even the Crimea has translated addresses and last names into Ukrainian without any mistakes. “They used to have all of their voter lists in Russian, so they decided to translate them using an electronic translation program, which turned Vorovskogo Street into Zlodiyska Street [Vorovsky St.>Robbers’ St. — Ed.]. They were forced to hire a professional translator,” Davydovych said.
According to Davydovych, the lists are not perfect yet, but there are still four months left to make all the necessary corrections. He noted that before the 2004 presidential elections only 15 days were provided for this procedure.
Now, every conscientious voter will have 100 days to check his or her name on the voters’ list. Under the amended legislation, no changes can be made on election day. However, so far this can be done only “on the premises of the work group,” but Davydovych promises that he will secure legislative amendments to enable voters to check their names and those of their relatives and neighbors “at village councils, housing departments, or schools.” The CEC chairman has already tested the system: “I opened the file for Kyiv and found myself, my wife, and my daughter.”
This time the news conference with Davydovych did not take place on the third floor of the CEC building as usual but on the sixth floor, in the assembly room. It turns out that the CEC press center is now being used to train invigilators for the voters’ lists. Every day 140 people from the regions are taught how to operate the new software. The course will be taught to 1,410 individuals whose task will be to prevent repeat voting and cemetery votes.
The group processing voters’ lists at the CEC is already operating the new equipment. Davydovych proudly showed two new servers that contain the names of 36 million voters. Journalists used this opportunity to find their names in the system: everybody found their names.
Funding for this was generously provided by the OSCE: 2,240,000 euros for equipment, UAH 1,213,000 for software, and UAH 27,000,000 in wages for the various work groups.
“You haven’t seen expensive yet,” Davydovych said, addressing the journalists, who were taken aback by these staggering amounts. “Just have a look at the laser jet printer. The regions have never seen anything like this before.”
This celebration of democracy carries a hefty price tag for Ukrainian taxpayers. The CEC has now stopped at UAH 555 million, but this is not the final sum. If gasoline prices go up or the minimum wage is raised, this amount will increase even more.
Journalists also raised the question of the legislative ban on the mass media’s involvement in the election campaign, which seemed like the proverbial one question too many for Davydovych. “Everybody has his own concerns, but it’s always millet for the one-track-mind chicken” — this was the CEC chairman’s immediate response to this question. “The functioning of the mass media should not be artificially or legislatively restricted, but at the same time it must be regulated by law. Both the CEC and other commissions should have the influence to keep the mass media working in the legal dimension. Understand this however you want,” he said.
Nevertheless, the ice has been broken in this matter. Last week the parliamentary committee on the mass media began discussing a bill to introduce amendments to the law on elections of parliamentarians, which concern the work of the mass media. Apparently, the parliamentarians are getting busy. After all, they need to think of a way to get their faces on television during the elections.
