KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st March, 2019) The campaign of one of Ukraine's top presidential candidates, Yulia Tymoshenko, on Sunday accused Ukrainian diplomats in overseas missions of attempts at electoral fraud.
"We have information about certain heads of diplomatic and consular missions being drawn into illegal activities, about attempts to control or influence members of local election commissions... in France, the US, Spain and several other countries," campaign member Hryhoriy Nemyria told reporters.
Nemyria, who is also deputy head of Tymoshenko's Fatherland party, said at a press briefing they had been alerted to vote rigging in the Kiev, Lviv and Donetsk regions, including alleged signing of blank vote tally sheets, vote buying, carousel voting and using pens with disappearing ink.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry said earlier the police had been alerted to 1,612 electoral irregularities and opened 19 criminal cases as of late afternoon, but the Central Election Commission said it had not registered any serious violations.
Ukrainians are choosing among 39 presidential candidates, including current leader Petro Poroshenko, who has been running neck-and-neck in opinion polls with ex-Prime Minister Tymoshenko. Comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been leading the race.
Russia has condemned Ukraine's decision to bar its observers from polling places, which it said undermined the vote's legitimacy and could affect Moscow's decision to accept the outcome. Up to 10 million Ukrainians in Russia and breakaway eastern provinces have been disenfranchised.
