Elections in Kotsiubynske: Local Activists Gain Despite Fraud Allegations

Local community activists secured 10 out of 26 seats during by-elections to Kotsiubynske village council near Kyiv, Petro Poroshenko Bloc MP Olga Chervakova wrote on Facebook. The incoming head of the village council is also a local activist, so together they have 11 votes between them.

Representatives of Novi Oblychchia [Eng: New Faces], the party of the mayor of the city of Irpen, which is located close to Kotsiubynske, also got 11 votes. Local activists have previously accused this party on numerous occasions of corruption and seeking to administratively tie Kostiubynske to Irpen to use the village’s forests as a development site.

The activists used to have only four votes on the village council, while Novi Oblychchia had 17. Currently, Novi Oblychchia does not have the necessary 2/3 of votes to remove the head of the village council and overturn her veto anymore.

Chervakova also said that activists were "robbed off of their victory" in at least four districts, by various techniques such as buying votes, bringing in people to vote who do not actually live in the city, or spoiling ballots which supported the local activists.

Source: Oleh Shankovskyi, Ukrayinska Pravda