Canadian observers have praised the cancelation by the Verkhovna Rada of a draft law criminalizing libel, the introduction of new rules regarding the temporary change of place to vote in the parliamentary elections, and added that election administration bodies made substantial efforts to spread warnings of electoral fraud.
“We think it’s a positive step that the bodies keeping the state register of voters started introducing new rules regarding the temporary change of place to vote, which complicated the ability to deliver voters to other polling stations. Moreover, election administration bodies and other government agencies made substantial efforts to spread warnings of electoral fraud,” Mission Canada’s Long-Term Observer Coordinator Ann Szyptur said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.
She also noted that the cancelation by the Verkhovna Rada of a bill that proposed criminalizing libel was a positive step in the context of the upcoming parliamentary elections.
At the press conference, the mission presented its second interim report on the observation of the parliamentary elections in Ukraine for the period from September 28 to October 12, 2012.
The mission includes 65 long-term observers, who were deployed throughout Ukraine. Another 365 short-term observers will join them on October 20.
