Eight candidates with the last name Zelenskyy are running for Members of Parliament in the snap election of the Verkhovna Rada on July 21.
The head of the Central Election Commission (CEC), Tetiana Slipachuk, said this at a briefing, Ukrainian News Agency reports.
"Eight candidates with the last name Zelenskyy, but with other names and patronymic names are running in different constituencies," she said.
At the same time, Slipachuk assured that these candidates do not use the technology of "twins", but really have such a last name.
“These are not clones. These are real people. These are not the people who changed their last name. This is easy to verify. First, we received information about changing the last name. Second, information about parents is indicated. If they are Zelenskyys, then the candidate Zelenskyy,” she said.
At the same time, the CEC is concerned about the “twins”.
“Using the technology of twins is a very brazen defamation of the basic principles of free and informed expression of the will of the voters,” said Slipachuk.
According to her, the greatest number of twins in one constituency is 3 or 4 people.
“The CEC also notes the presence of another technology that is gaining momentum. It is connected with the use of brands. We saw many registered public associations, private enterprises, political parties that used names or individual words from the names of real political forces. This is a technology of voter deception. This is unacceptable technology," stressed the chairperson of the CEC.
Some of these cases are considered in the courts and the CEC considers their assessment to be extremely important.
At the same time, answering the question of responsibility for applying such technology, Slipachuk answered that, unfortunately, it does not exist.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the CEC registered 21 parties and 3,171 candidates for snap parliamentary election in the constituencies on July 21.
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