CVU official position regarding pressure from campaign office of the presidential candidate V. Zelensky and the TV channel "1 + 1"

NGO Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU) reports on attempts to pressure and discredit the organization from the candidate for President of Ukraine V. Zelensky and the TV channel "1 + 1", owned by the business partner of the candidate, the Ukrainian oligarch I. Kolomoisky.

On February 12, 2019, the CVU unveiled a message calling on the candidate for President of Ukraine V. Zelensky pay for the ran of the film "The Servant of the People 3" from the election fund. According to the expert assessment of CVU, the film "The Servant of the People 3", where V. Zelensky is the leading actor. It is related to political matters, positively depicts the activity of the artistic character of V. Zelensky, and his name is identical to the name of the political party, which nominated V. Zelensky for presidential election. In view of this, CVU called on V. Zelensky to pay for the ran of the film "The Servant of the People 3" on TV channels, from the presidential candidate's election fund, which complies with the requirements of Ukrainian legislation.

After the publication of this announcement, campaign office of the candidate V. Zelensky distributed in social media and mass media defamatory materials on the activities of CVU, accusing that  publication of organization with expert opinion on the film "The Servant of the People 3" allegedly is a commissioned article.

In addition, there were received messages of a threatening nature directed at the organization from some individuals, which is confirmed by the corresponding screenshots.

With this statement, CVU reports that such allegations are defamatory, false and do not correspond to the reality. According to CVU, the real purpose of these allegations is to attempt to influence the objectivity of the CVU findings regarding the film "The Servant of the People" and the evaluation of the election campaign of V. Zelensky. With such allegations, the candidate team is trying to discredit the work of CVU related to monitoring the regular election of the President of Ukraine on March 31, 2019.

In order to avoid speculation, on February 14 CVU appealed to the Central Election Commission of Ukraine with a request to provide an official explanation regarding the content of Part 1 of Art. 58 of the Law "On Elections of the President of Ukraine", namely the definition of "election campaigning". In particular, CVU urged the CEC to formulate the conditions under which, in their opinion, the broadcasting of the film can be considered as election campaigning.

In addition, CVU collects materials to appeal to law enforcement agencies on the facts of disseminating defamatory materials about the activities of the organization, as well as sending direct threats addressed to the head of the organization. According to the CVU, such actions not only damage the organization's business reputation, but can also lead to physical provocations against the CVU members and observers.

Pressure and distribution of defamatory materials addressed to CVU will not affect the objectivity of the organization's evaluation of the election campaign of presidential candidates, including V. Zelensky.

CVU is thankful to Ukrainian civil society organizations that at the expert level supported the position of the Committee of Voters regarding the possible violation of the current legislation by the candidate V. Zelensky.