Marat Sarsembayev, personal envoy of the OSCE chairman-in-office for elections, did not see any violations in the Kyiv regional elections on Oct. 31.
"My personal impression based on visits to eight polling stations is that the election is valid. I did not hear any serious complaints from candidates, election observers or members of elections commissions," Sarsembayev told a Monday press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine office.
Sarsembayev said he chose which polling stations to visit in the Kyiv region. The local elections commissions comprised representatives of various political forces, and the Party of Regions did not differ from other political sources by the level of its representation, he said.
"I did not see any special factors which could play into the hands of the ruling party," he said.
In the words of Sarsembayev, election observers "were satisfied with the election process."
At the same time, Sarsembayev got an impression from conversations with elections commission members that some of them "lacked profound understanding" of provisions of the election law.
He also said that seals on certain ballot boxes were handmade and certain polling stations used regular paper signed by members of elections commissions to seal ballot boxes.
Sarsembayev stressed that his criticism referred only to the Kyiv region, not the whole of Ukraine.
