Maidan-Monitoring: Elections 2012

Maidan Monitoring:Election 2012

http://world.maidan.org.ua

Monitoring the observance of the Law “On elections of people’s deputies in Ukraine” during the Parliamentary Election in Ukraine on October 28th 2012

Maidan’s Story


Maidan.org.ua Online community formed in 2000 by activists united to protest the murder of independent journalist Georgiy Gongadze.

2004 – Maidan was the main internet hub for Orange Revolution; Volunteers reported up to 1500 news a day. Monitors aggregated election reports from 30 countries70 cars patrolled election precincts in Kyiv and coordinated via siteReports were used in the Supreme Court

2006 – Parliamentary election, first project on citizen sociology, we compared voters’ preferences and priorities of the politicians and correctly predicted very sad future of the Parliament2010 – President’s election, we documented the total lack of communication with citizens and predicted the failure of social dialog with the next elected President

Site gets 120.000 visitors per month for 8 last years. Most of our visitors are dedicated activists. Our projects traditionally involve hundreds of volunteers

The Monitoring Team


2012 – Parliamentary election, we formed a team of dedicated professionals to properly monitor and document the observance of election law. The project name is “Maidan Monitoring: Election 2012”.

Throughout all of it's history Maidan has been bringing together civil activists from Ukraine and abroad dedicated to strengthening democracy in Ukraine.

Maidan is a network of experienced human rights activists, law, psychology, communication and IT experts, journalists and technically savvy concerned citizens.

We telecommute for 12 years.

Our core team members live in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Odesa, Simferopol, Ternopil, Kremenchuk, USA and Canada.

Interactive Map of Election ViolationsCrowdsourced reports are only added to the if they are properly accompanied by photo and/or video evidence and after verification by project's law experts

Parliamentary election in Ukraine will be held on October 28, 2012.

784 complaints regarding violations of the electoral law added to the interactive map http://maidanua.org/vybory2012/main?l=en_US as of September 27th 2012.

The total number of violations reported to the project team is 2742.

The map functions since June 9th. Citizens submit reports since July 9th.

Violations with Most Impact on Election Results


1. Administrative pressure 2. Widespread deception of voters, e.g. public works funded

by the state budget are presented to voters as results of private efforts of a certain candidate or party.

3. Widespread indirect bribery of voters, which is expressly forbidden by the law.

4. Direct physical violence5. Pressure on and close-down of independent media

Our first detailed monitoring summary had been sent to all international observers. We had officially submitted it to Ukrainian government authorities.

Worst Offenders


The major violator of the Law is the Ukrainian government, who:

1. Did not provide the stable, transparent, unambiguous election law thus having failed to maintain the principle of legal certainty.

2. Did not guarantee that the organization of district election commissions in carried out in perfectly transparent and legitimate way.

3. Does not protect the citizens from manipulations and extralegal coercion which is becoming the major threat to society along with corruption.

Most reports of violations are related to Party of regions and affiliated candidates.

Our first detailed monitoring summary had been officially submitted it to Ukrainian government authorities. It has already been used by Cabinet of Ministers.

Data Flow


Reports are crowdsourced from a quickly growing network of concerned citizens determined to hold those responsible for violations of the law accountable. Information is being submitted through a web form, email, phone, or social networks.

Most violations are reported from Odesa region, Kyiv city and Kharkiv region.

We engaged 250+ volunteers from all regions of Ukraine. There are reports from 280+ locations.

Reports include video or photographic evidence or official documents and are verified by the editors and evaluated and commented on by the lawyers.

Reporters : Making a Difference 1. Citizens submit not only final cases but also inform us on upcoming events. 2. Volunteers “pick up” on information and make photos and videos. Sometimes it takes traveling to long distance. 3. Activists are using the reports on the map in courts and sometimes win.

Roman Bilyk, volunteer, submitted 7 reports

Crowdsourced photos of flags of Party of regions displayed at local councils in villages near Odessa caught attention of the Ombudsman. As a result the violation stopped.

Empowering Citizens


We encourage netizens to look for and document violations by providing them with simple visual HowTos - Motivators based on real reports.Our visual motivators are eagerly shared. They spark legal discussions and make people talk about the ethical issues in the elections.

The legal discussion about this (above) picture started our communication and cooperation with Ombudsman’s office.

The photo (left) shows political advertising of party of Regions on a public transport in Luhansk.

Gifts branded with political logos, given to kids in a school near Kyiv.

Impact. Sharing Findings


Our original content is eagerly shared (with credits or not) by major news media including Ukrainska Pravda, UNIAN, etc. However, our major distributors are volunteers - active citizens who share it via social networks. Peak traffic on our facebook page was 56000 views.

We offer weekly summaries of verified reports added to the interactive map and custom publication for particular

The preliminary results of the project were presented in UNIAN press agency in Kyiv on September 18th. The next presentation is planned for October 15th.

Our data is actively used by the government authorities and international observers as a reliable source of information on elections.

Project Results are covered in the national media, and our partners include Ukrainian Service Voice of America” (TV broadcasts on Ukraine’s “Channel 5”).

Internationally Aknowledged


We have working contacts with international election observers from: Canada (CANADEM), USA, Japan and the European Parliament and seeking more.

Our expert Yuriy Lukanov (on the right) – key speaker in the debate on "The Ukrainian parliamentary election 2012 in the perspective of the Civil Society Representatives" in the European Parliament, Brussels - Sept 26th 2012

English language summaries of our project findings are very popular and are used by many observers

Meeting with CANADEM representatives in Kharkiv - Sept 26th 2012

What's Next?


Our future projects will aim to involve general public to report and document violations of the political rights of Ukrainian citizens. So far we focus on freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.

We will continue to focus on the freedom of speech on the Internet especially considering new threats to the freedom of expression that emerged recently.

We encourage you to : Consider project's reports and data in evaluation of Ukrainian elections Provide assistance to project team in spreading awareness on Maidan's efficiency

in carrying out a large scale crowdsourced monitoring project Involve project's experts into discussions, round-tables and experts meetings

dedicated to Ukraine's upcoming elections as wells as freedom of speech, human rights and civil freedoms monitoring.

We are positive that we bring a unique expertise and perspective on Ukraine

Currently our long-term partners include the International Renaissance Foundation and the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group

More Info


Contact Maidan

Natalka Zubar, Kharkiv, UkrainePhone: +380 50 401 23 83Email: [email protected] Skype: nelliza111

Oleksiy Kuzmenko, Washington, DC Phone: 202 549 20 68Email: [email protected] Skype: oleksiykuzmenko

Our site in English http://world.maidan.org.ua The monitoring summary and periodic reports could be found there

Interface map is available in English http://maidanua.org/vybory2012/main?l=en_US Reports are Google translated, human translations are available upon request.

The “Maidan-Monitoring” project is supported by the International Renaissance Foundation and the contributions of team members

News & Politics

Maidan-Monitoring: Elections 2012