Analysis of the questionnaire results on training for law enforcement officers “ The role of law enforcement officers in the electoral process- 2015”
The analysis is conducted to study the level of readiness of law enforcement officers to participate in ensuring the protection of the electoral process. 10023 respondents participated in the questionnaire, including 22% of women, 78% of men. Responses were the following:
The question “Were you earlier involved into the protection of citizen's rights and public order during the election process?”: a. Yes - 78% b. No - 22% The question “Did you have similar training for law enforcement officers before the parliamentary elections in Ukraine in October 2014?”: c. Yes - 55% d. No – 45% The question “Do you think today's training was effective for you?”: e. Very effective - 46% f. Quite effective - 46% g. Not effective enough - 6% h. Ineffective at all - 2% The question “Did the training conducted by CVU help you to improve your skills?” i. Helped a lot -45% j. Fairly helped - 31% k. Helped somehow - 20% l. Helped not too much - 2% m. It did not help - 2% Conclusions on the training results and analysis of participant's responses: 1. The positive moment is that the number of law enforcement officers who went through training increased by 24% compared to 2014; in general in 2015 55% of law enforcement officers participated in training on their role in the electoral process in 2014, such training sessions should be also conducted during the next elections. The training is necessary as different electoral procedures are described in relevant laws on elections in different way, and the parliament often changes the rules for elections after the start of the electoral process. 1
2. During preparation for regular local elections training sessions were conducted in short terms in few weeks before the Election Day. Consequently, trainings didn't cover the stages of the electoral process, which were finished before training sessions. In future training for law enforcement officers should be conducted long before the Election Day, better immediately after the election is scheduled. 3. In 2015 MIA of Ukraine, the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands played a key role in organizing training of law enforcement officers. However due to time limits providers didn't have the opportunity to study the specific needs of most police officers, e.g. topics to pay increased attention and topics of secondary importance. In future the assessment of law enforcement officers’ needs for the form and the content of training should be done before the training on the role of police officers in electoral process, the received proposals should be considered in the curriculum and teaching materials. 4. Law enforcement officers involved in protection of public order during elections and representatives of investigation departments who investigate crimes according to articles 157-160 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine both participated in training. Despite the fact that amendments to the laws on increased responsibility for crimes against electoral rights came into force in 2014, the number of criminal proceedings didn’t change a lot. That is the reason for CVU to propose the parliament to make amendments to the law which would contain the definition of “vote buying” and would allow bringing to responsibility for indirect vote-buying. In future training for investigators should involve trainers-experts of the civil society who have practical experience in preventing electoral offences. 5.
In future trainers and experts in crimes against electoral rights should ensure good communication, in particular introducing “hotlines”, consultations online etc. The central office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine can play active role in such communication. Such communication will help to classify answers to frequently asked questions, to improve the readiness of police officers to maintain legal order during elections and to develop proposals to improve legislation, including laws providing administrative responsibility for electoral rights violations.
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