Elections in Donbass. Ukrainian reporter: “All conditions for the polling process were provided.”

Roman Gnatyuk—a special correspondent of Ukrainian “112 channel”—reporting from the ground about the elections on November 2, 2014, in Donbass, which were held in a proper way against all expectations of the Ukrainian media.

Ukrainian correspondent disproving Ukrainian stereotypes

Translation from Russian and Ukrainian by Alexander Fedotov and O.C. / Subtitles by Marcel Sardo

The transcript:

Anchor: Referring to the main topic of the day – to the so-called pseudo-elections in the self- proclaimed DPR and LPR, which are still being held. Our special correspondent – Roman Gnatyuk – is now in Donetsk. Good afternoon, Roman.

Roman: Good evening.

Anchor: Evening, Good evening! Where are you now? What is the current news?

Roman: I am in the Central Election Committee of the self-proclaimed Republic of Donetsk. Just returned from the press-tour organized for international observers and journalists. There were organized 5 press-tours. There were 16 journalists and many observers in ours. I will tell you which countries they were from: England, France, USA, Poland, Abkhazia and Russia. We travelled through Sedovo, Novoazovsk, Telmanovo and Novyj Svet and returned to Donetsk.

Anchor: Roman, is there any information about tampering of the electorate?

Roman: There is no information regarding bribing, there was information regarding coupons…

Anchor: Social coupons?

Roman: …that allegedly social coupons were distributed. It was not confirmed. There was something done to attract voters to polling stations: live music, live and recorded music, but mainly live music. There were also some grocery markets where quite cheaply, for 1-3 hryvnias, one could buy potatoes, carrot or cabbage. There were plenty of them.

Anchor: Thank you very much. Could you clarify one more thing: you are telling us about journalists. Which countries and which agencies or resources are represented by the journalists, who have come to that event? Just to get an idea about which countries and which people are going to be informed about the realization of these elections.

Roman: Look, Among the others that were accredited there, the following join us in the press-tour: Guardian, Agence France Presse, TBS Japan, Austrian TV channels, obviously a lot of Russian media, and personally me.

Anchor: Roman, regarding the details of the election process itself: whether all the polling stations, which the journalists attended, had closed polling booths? Was the secrecy of expression of popular will provided there?

Roman: Yes, absolutely everywhere were sealed ballot boxes, absolutely all the polling stations we visited were provided with the voting booths, all the conditions for polling process were established. That was noted by all the observers with whom I managed to communicate. A bit later I will send you a video filmed at Telmanovo, and you can see everything with your own eyes.

Anchor: Well, Roman, thank you for the information. We will await the further broadcast and new information from you. Roman Gnatyuk was on a call.