MOSCOW, November 17 (RAPSI) – Ukraine’s Interior Ministry has initiated over 400 cases on the falsification of parliamentary election results and arrested several suspects, RIA Novosti reported on Monday, citing Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.

An early parliamentary election was held in Ukraine on October 26. On November 10, the country’s Central Election Commission (CEC) published the official results for the elections held by party lists. The results indicated that 225 people representing six parties were elected to the Verkhovna Rada alongside 196 of the 198 candidates that ran in majority constituencies.

Avakov said that several suspects in these falsification cases had been arrested and that no personal complaints had been filed with the police against Dnepropetrovsk Governor Ihor Kolomoisky, CEC head Mykhaylo Okhendovsky or candidate from the Opposition Bloc, David Zhvania.

Shortly before the election, criminal responsibility for bribing voters and other violations of election law was tightened in Ukraine.

The new law increased the punishment for bribing voters from five to seven years’ imprisonment and introduced a new penalty for “vote selling” in the form of fines ranging between 1,700 and 5,400 hryvnias ($130-$400).