On January, 26, at about 11 p.m., a public ombudsman for voting rights of the OPORA Civil Network in Kirovograd Yevhen Hurnytskyi was attacked in the hallway of a multi-apartment building. He refers this incident to his professional activities.
“Yesterday, I was attacked in the hallway of the building I live in. Some persons unknown called my name, and when I responded I received a blow in my right eye. The perpetrators ran away from the scene and have not taken any of my personal belongings.
I relate this case to my professional activities as recently I have been recording cases of electoral fraud in Kirovograd oblast,” states Yevhen Hurnytskyi.
The ombudsman filed a complaint with police over the incident, and also sought for medical attention.
Yevhen Hurnytskyi has already been a complainant with the police about a case on placing campaigning materials with no reference data on the billboards depicting a Ukrainian Presidential candidate; and he is a witness to a series of suchlike complaints on the representations of five other candidates.
“The election campaign had scarcely started when the OPORA representative was attacked. We treat this incident as a sign of pressure on the observation missions. Regardless, shall we continue to be objective and unbiased to take record of the course of Presidential campaign in Kirovograd oblast,” articulates Zoya Lebid, a coordinator for Civil Network OPORA election observation in Kirovograd oblast.
May we remind that OPORA representatives in the city of Kropyvnytskyi filed complaints with the police about placing the billboards with no reference data depicting Ukrainian Presidential candidates Yevhen Muraev, Anatoliy Hrytsenko, Valentyn Nalyvaychenko, Andriy Sadovyi, Serhiy Kaplin. In addition, on January, 22, a complaint was filed in Kropyvnytskyi about the alleged breach of the Law of Ukraine “On Election of the President of Ukraine” related to the placing of the billboard with no reference data with the candidate Oleksandr Shevchenko.
For more comments, please, contact:
Zoya Lebid, coordinator for election observation of OPORA Civil Network in Kirovograd oblast
tel: 0957943072