“We learned from the events of 2014”. The CEC made it difficult for the occupiers to prepare for their so-called “referendums”

Authors:
Kostia Andreikovets, Oksana Kovalenko
Date:

The head of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Oleh Didenko informed that the commission “learned from the events of 2014” [2014 - the year of the beginning of Russiaʼs military aggression against Ukraine] and made a number of decisions to protect the personal data of Ukrainians and make it difficult for Russians to prepare for pseudo-referendums.

Didenko told about this in a comment to “Babel”.

"When the full-scale invasion began on February 24, 2022, we passed a resolution closing access to the voter register," Didenko noted, adding that the State Voter Register is one of the largest and most accurate databases of Ukrainian citizens.

If you have access to it, you can get information about all voters of Ukraine.

The Russians were unable to obtain a list of people living in the occupied territories and their personal data, as was the case in Crimea. Therefore, according to Didenko, this makes it difficult to hold any pseudo-referendums.

"In July, we appealed to the states not to recognize pseudo-referendums. We also urged citizens not to participate in this and warned them of criminal liability for participating in a pseudo-referendum," Didenko added.