07/26/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - By-elections to the Verkhovna Rada took place in Chernihiv

By-elections to the Verkhovna Rada took place in Chernihiv

07.26.2015 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine News Agency

Topics from Media and Social Networks

• By-elections to the Verkhovna Rada took place in Chernihiv.
• The head of the "Will of People" parliamentary group Eremeyev was seriously injured after falling from the horse.
• The Head of the Constitutional Court Baulin had a car accident.
• Chief of the  "Azov" batallion training center, former Maidan activist Babich found dead.
• The concert of Russian rapper Timati was cancelled  in Odessa.

Key Events In Ukraine

• By-elections to the Verkhovna Rada for the district 205 were held in Chernihiv. According to the official data, the voter turnout was about a third of the active roll. The meter-long bulletins contained the names of 127 candidates, 80% of whom did not get a single vote. The exit polls results, presented by different groups of sociologists, showed completely opposite results, indicating victory of two main candidates. According to the Interior Ministry, no major violations of the election process were reported. The official results after counting of nearly two-thirds of the votes, give the victory to pro-government candidate Berezenko.

Ukraine at War

• In Schastye, despite the attention of the OSCE observers, the militants launched a tank attack on the positions of the Ukrainian army. They also attacked and shelled the positions of the Ukrainian army and settlements around all the conflict zone, using the heavy weapons, which were supposed to be withdrawn from the demarcation line a long time ago. During the day 84 clashes were recorded, including the clashes near the  checkpoints, three Ukrainian soldiers were wounded.

Ukraine and the World

• NATO convenes the emergency meeting due to the developments in Turkey, where after the terrorist attack in the Suruç border town the Turkish forces attacked the militant positions in Syria. The EU calls the Turlish authorities to make peace with the Kurds.

The Trends

• Experts believe that most of the mechanisms of the elections falsification, which will be used during the next electionin, were tested in Chernihiv: bribing of voters with money and products; false members of electoral commissions; fictitious candidates with similar names; meter-long bulletins which present difficulties for voters understanding; exit polls with the results known in advance; photographing of the voting results ; "carousels" (substitution of bulletins)  and protocols falsification. At the same time, the legislators and the President do nothing to prevent such violations by amending the electoral laws.