13:36 27.10.2014

Ukrainian Rada elections generally without incident – OPORA

2 min read
Ukrainian Rada elections generally without incident – OPORA

The voting in the early elections to the Verkhovna Rada took place in conditions that do not allow one to doubt the legitimacy of the elections, the civil chain OPORA said.

"The civil chain OPORA says voting in the early parliamentary elections in Ukraine went normally and without incidents that could have cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election process in general," Olha Aivazovska, elections programs coordinator at OPORA, told a press conference in Kyiv on Monday.

According to a parallel vote count done by OPORA, the voter turnout in the elections reached 51.2% and the projected margin of error does not exceed 1.9%.

"We can call this voter turnout very high," Aivazovska said, adding that this indicator indicates interest in political processes in the country.

Aivazovska said most candidates had equal conditions and opportunities, both during the election campaign and during voting, although election campaigning in some parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions was aggravated considerably by the actions taken by illegal armed groups.

"Therefore, the campaign cannot be called fully free within the limits of the country," Aivazovska said.

Aivazovska also reiterated that OPORA finds the decision made by the Central Elections Commission not to conduct voting in 15 one-mandate majority election districts (nine located in the Donetsk region and six in the Luhansk region) acceptable because the Ukrainian administration does not control these territories and cannot ensure a legal election process.

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