The non-government OPORA election monitoring group on Nov. 1 published its interim report on polling problems during local elections held on Oct. 31.
According to the 8-page report, local elections on Oct. 31 across Ukraine were held in an atmosphere of distrust for the following reasons:
- Many cases which an excessive number of extra ballots were printed right before election day;
- Imbalanced political party representation on electoral commissions at different levels; and
- Fear among candidates of being deregistered right before election day The report says there were many procedural and organization problems with the campaign.
"The transparency, honesty, and democratic nature of the local elections should be evaluated in light of longterm monitoring of the process," the report says.
Some 177 montiors in 24 regions nationwide, including Crimea, contributed to the OPORA report. About a thousand monitors watched polling stations on the day of the vote, 425 at territorial election commissions. OPORA is funded by western donors.
Read the 8-page Ukrainian-language OPORA local election report here.
