You're reading: Election 2012 blog: Marginal parties to dominate district commissions (infographic)

Ukraine's 225 district election commissions will be dominated by marginal parties as a result of a draw conducted by the Central Election Commission this weekend. Most of these parties will not be represented in the next parliament.

District commissions are a
crucial element of the election infrastructure because they assemble
results from polling stations in their
respective districts and pronounce the results. District
commission
officials form the composition of polling stations within their
districts and ensure a fair election process. They also have the
power to solve some types of disputes at polling stations.

Nevertheless,
of the 19 parties that have received the right to form district
commissions and nominate senior staff, only five have registered a
party list and will compete in the national constituency. The rest
are tiny, unknown parties that have nominated between 1 and 12
candidates in various majority constituencies.
Half of the
parliament will be elected through the national constituency by a
vote for parties, and the rest of the 450-seat Verkhovna Rada will be
elected through majority constituencies. A total of 81 parties out of
89 that nominates candidates in the Oct. 28 election, suggested
candidates for district commissions to the Central
Election
Commission, the central body in charge of organizing election.

They
nominated a total of 13,424 candidates to fill 2,926 vacancies in the
district commissions, according to Opora, an election watchdog. The
Aug. 24 draw was conducted to decide whose candidates will form
the
district commissions.

Apart
from representatives of parties, each district commission will
include representatives of all factions from the current parliament.
Thus, each commission will include members of the Party of Regions,
Yulia Tymoshenko’s Bloc, Communist Party, Volodymyr Lytvyn’s People’s
Party, and Our Ukraine-Self Defense Bloc.