President is Once Again Offered Fair Election Play

On September 8, the legislature made an attempt to block the main ways of rigging elections. Oleksandr Yeliashkevych, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada election oversight committee, submitted amendments to the presidential election law, concerning the minutes of the territorial election committees. 245 People's Deputies voted aye.

This preventive measure is absolutely necessary and logical, considering the current disproportion, to put it mildly, in the allocation of TEC chairmanships: 33- 34% in favor of the President; 16-19% for the Communists, Socialists, and Peasant Party, considering their 225 constituencies, stressed Speaker Tkachenko.

Oleksandr Yeliashkevych explained to The Day that »the key idea of the amendments is for all TEC members to receive the original protocols.» This legal requirement is perfectly justified, considering the bitter experience of district 221 when corrections were made in the protocols on the way from the local election committees. At present, »one of the major vote-rigging opportunities is lost — precisely the one on which the number one candidate's team counted so much.» Now even if »faultless» protocols (from the Kuchma team's point of view) are supplied the CEC, it will be easy to check just how faultless they are by comparison. In addition, TEC members are assuming a higher degree of responsibility; now they will have to recall precise data not after half a year of proceedings but as soon as any discrepancies are detected.

To an extent, this additional precaution allows for the »conscientious» approach of the local councils that are still to form constituency committees, yet there is little likelihood that they will »change» their mind, Mr. Yeliashkevych admits. Indeed, despite the lawmakers' active efforts in helping local councils see the light before the parliamentary vacations (e.g., the immunity-restoring law), they did not measure up, showing a biased approach to the »formation of commissions, giving preference to one of the candidates.» The election oversight committee chairman attributes this to the fact that CEC worked with local legislators in this final crucial phase. And thus the amendments were made lest the CEC repeat such work. The said amendments will »reduce to a minimum the possibility of falsification even in the presence of advantages enjoyed by one of the candidates.»

It is also true that the Parliament's legislative initiative may well place Leonid Kuchma in an extremely embarrassing situation: should he veto the amendments, both the electorate and the people would need no further explanations to see who is the actual opponent of transparent elections. Hence, it is possible that Mr. Kuchma will remember the »unlawfulness» of the interim committees of inquiry. Mr. Yeliashkevych believes, however, that the election oversight committee is »allowed» by Article 89 of the Constitution, which will make the officially designated guarantor of that lofty document think twice before bringing the matter to the Constitutional Court.

INCIDENTALLY

The four presidential candidates who signed the Kaniv accord plan to set up a center receiving, parallel to CEC, election return data from the territorial election committees, Oleksandr Tkachenko, one of the four signatories, declared, adding that he is convinced this center will reduce all falsification opportunities to a minimum. Should there be any discrepancies between the data submitted and stated in the protocol, the presidential candidates' or political parties' representatives will demand revision of the election turnout, reports Interfax Ukraine.