Court recognizes decision of DEC No. 87 on recount of votes at two polling stations in Prykarpattia region as groundless – OPORA

The Ivano-Frankivsk District Court has considered several cases regarding the decisions on the recount of votes at 20 polling stations, which were made by DEC No. 87 when establishing the voting results in the by-election to the Rada held on March 28, the OPORA Civil Network reported on Monday.

It is noted that all the considered cases were opened on the claims of candidate for deputies Oleksandr Shevchenko.

"In most cases (for 6 precincts) the decision of the court of first instance - the actions of the DEC to recognize legitimate, the plaintiff is to completely refuse to satisfy the claims," the message says.

It notes that, according to OPORA analysts and lawyers, the courts supported the approach of the district election commission (DEC) regarding the need to formally comply with the requirements of the law and recognized as legitimate the actions of the DECs to send for a recount of votes at those precinct election commissions in which safe packages with protocols were open; there are no signatures or names of all DEC members; mechanical damage to the package with electoral documentation was found on the safe-bags; there were no seals and names with the initials of DEC members on the safe packages (the package contained only signatures).

According to representatives of the candidate Shevchenko, it is planned to appeal these court decisions.

At the same time, the court recognized the decision of DEC No. 87 to recount at two polling stations (No. 260012 and No. 260078) groundless, noting that the presence of mechanical damage to the pack of unused ballots, the absence of an indication of the type of elections and the number of the district on the packages is not evidence of printing documentation.

"The court refused to satisfy the requirements for recording the data of the primary protocols of the DECs drawn up in recount (the data obtained during recounts will be taken into account). Thus, the court provided an assessment of the DEC decision, but did not create problems with the execution of the court decision and making changes to the data of the voting results," Olha Kotsiuruba, senior legal adviser of OPORA, is quoted in OPORA.

It is noted that the last hearing concerned the consideration of the case on the appointment of a recount at DEC No. 260010 (Horokholyna village).

The court asked the parties to provide additional documents. The decision has not yet been made, the court retired to the deliberation room. The consideration of the case was supposed to begin at 11:00 on April 5.

"In addition, candidate Oleksandr Shevchenko appealed to the court against the actions and decisions of the DEC to invalidate the voting at five polling stations based on the results of the recount. Their trial begins on April 5. OPORA organized live broadcasts of the meetings, which can be viewed on the Facebook page of the Public Ombudsmen for Protection of electoral rights," the organization reports.

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