Russian media falsely reported that the 2015 Ukrainian local elections saw a record number of violations. They cited the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, a non-governmental organization that had registered violations during the last Ukrainian elections, as their source.

This news was reported by the Russian television network NTV, the Russian government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, and the zavtra.ru and EurAsia Daily websites.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3EPtkK2opU

website screenshot ntv.ru
website screenshot ntv.ru
website screenshot  rg.ru
website screenshot rg.ru

The Committee of Voters of Ukraine, however, did not register a record number of violations during the recent Ukrainian elections. Its executive director, Vitaliy Teslenko, told StopFake that compared to the 2010 local elections, there were approximately 2.5 times fewer violations in 2015.

“More than 3,800 violations were registered on the day of elections in 2010,” he said. “Then we had only 2,500 observers. Now, in 2015, we had 4,300 observers, but they detected far less violations [1,500].”

website screenshot 5.ua
website screenshot 5.ua

This is confirmed in the organization’s published report on the elections: “Comparing with the 2010 local election, the number of bribery of voters is far less. The Committee registered only single attempts of merry-go-round voting and bribery of voters.”

doc