The CVU commented on the second round of the elections and told what the candidates spent money for

In Uzhgorod Press Club, the CVU commented on the results of local elections in Transcarpathia and announced the results of the financial monitoring. Dmytro Tuzhansky, the head of the Transcarpathian branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine met with journalists. He told about the results of the local elections, including the second round in Uzhgorod, and the results of monitoring of the financing expenses of candidates during the elections under the project with the support of the Council of Europe. 

"Bogdan Andriyiv, who won almost twice as many votes as his opponent, became the new Mayor of Uzhgorod.

While one candidate was making noise and performance, the other candidate was making elections. There is very little transparency, equality and the rule of law in the work of the both candidates, but both candidates deserve each other – Dmytro Tuzhansky said. – Both candidates are not worthy of Uzhgorod, which is evidenced by the number of spoiled ballots – more than 10%. It’s not really funny. It is wrong, but that’s how it is." According to Dmytro Tuzhansky, only 6 violations were registered by law enforcement. "Once again, we have a situation when there are many indirect evidences of the use of bribery, though not as wide spread as in the first round, but unfortunately we can not prove it, – Dmytro Tuzhansky said. – The second round of the election campaign is bad billboards, ridiculous slogans. Very amateur black PR. In the last week, the situation exacerbated because of fake exit polls, a report about the arrest of one of the candidates. Everything was very weak and passive. Although in comparison to the rest of the country, Uzhgorod looks very decent. Uzhgorod even slightly exceeded the average turnout of 36-37%."

The head of the Transcarpathian branch of the CVU said that the election second round results give reason to debates about the usefulness of the second round.   

In the context of the campaign financing, Dmytro Tuzhansky said: it is bad that candidates do not report publicly. By law, candidates have to report to the TEC, but even the TEC did not make the information public.

"Data on the "black cash" are much more interesting the than the official reports. Internet, for example, in not mentioned in candidates’ report, although it was used by the candidates," – the expert said.