Kharkiv oblast: in districts #177 and #179 attempts were made to remove the official OPORA observers from the DEC

At DEC #177 member of the commission from Mykhailo Dobkin - Oleksandr Ostroverkh, and at DEC #179 member of the the commission from Anatolii Hrytsenko - Tymur Tomaiev are threatening to remove the official observers from OPORA from the building of DEC.

As reported by the observer of the Civil Network OPORA at DEC # 177, when he left the building of the DEC to make a phone call he was approached by the member of the commission Oleksandr Ostroverkh (representative of Mykhailo Dobkin). Oleksandr Ostroverkh accused the observer of disinformation:
that the observer from OPORA allegedly spreads the information that DEC did not start its work. The observer explained that did not commit anything like that.

Later on the observer from OPORA was approached with the same accusation by the Head of commission Serhii Bozhynov (representative of Volodymyr Saranov) and Deputy head Yaroslav Kasiian (representative of Anatolii Hrytsenko).

Afterward the observer was again approached by Oleksandr Ostroverkh saying that if the observer is going to leave and enter the building of the DEC #177 all the time, then the commission will vote to remove him as an observer.

At the DEC #179 the practiсe of individual remarks is also noticed. After the observer from OPORA tried to ask the members of the commission about the number of the polling stations that did not start their work, the member of DEC Tymur Tomaiev (representative of Anatolii Hrytsenko) said that the observer was interrupting the working process of the DEC and could be removed from its building.

Civil Network OPORA warns that such actions are qualified as the obstruction of the activity of the official observers and fall under the norm of Article 157 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Civic monitoring conducted by OPORA - is a type of network activity, aimed at impartial assessment of the preparation and conduct of elections, as well as preventing electoral violations through comprehensive civic action.
Since March, OPORA conducts a wide observation campaign during snap Presidential election, interim Parliamentary elections (district #83), and special local elections.
The organization cooperates with 175 long-term observers, who are watching the course of election campaign in all Ukrainian regions. On the Election Day on May 25, 3,000 activists will join them to conduct the parallel vote tabulation, based on statistical sample.