OPORA's representative have noticed a number of election law violations at polling station #741033 (173 Pershoho Travnia St.), what became a ground for the commission to deprive her the right to stay in the polling place.
The official reason why the journalist of OPORA's official media resource was that she prevented voters from approaching voting booths. The real reason was, however, that commission members have committed a number of violations, and the observer has drawn their attention to this fact. Firstly, an unknown man came into the polling place (as it turned out later, a lawyer Serhii Hryhorovych Stovpovyi) and two persons escorting him. After a short talk with the Commission Head, the unidentified person handed an envelope to one of observers. Another envelope was handed to a commission member. Both women have refused to comment or show what's in envelopes.
OPORA's representative was recording all actions of unauthorized persons on video. When the men was asked to show his ID and explain his legitimate reasons to stay at the polling station, Mr. Stovpovyi showed his lawyer ID card and aggressively said that he is a proxy of certificate Dmytro Savoliuk. However, the lawyer didn't allow observers to take a picture of his ID card.
When Stovpovyi returned to the commission after a while, he insisted that Commission removed OPORA's representative from the polling station, passed the corresponding resolution and drawn up a report on violation. After commission members refused to satisfy lawyer's demands, he started to threaten them and, as a result, the commission took an illegitimate decision to deprive the observer of the right to be present at polling place. Although the commission has drawn up the corresponding act, he wasn't provided for examination. Besides that, commission members have neither passed any resolutions on removal, nor voted on the corresponding decision,
There was another attempt to remove OPORA's journalist at polling station #741053. Stovpovyi has claimed that editorial certificates are fake, drawn up the corresponding act in three copies and took them with him. As long as there were no legal grounds to remove OPORA's from the polling station, the young man continues to observe election processes.
Civil Network OPORA would like to emphasize that according to the Law of Ukraine on Elections of People's Deputies, election commission can deprive a journalist of the right to attend only commission meetings, and only if such journalist obstructs its conduct.