Ukraine's local elections well-organized, say international observers
The international observers have noted that the October 31 local elections in Ukraine were well-organized.
"The general impression is that the elections were well-organized. Given the scale of these elections, naturally, we cannot exclude technical errors. Still, my personal impression is that there were no violations that could call into question the legitimacy of elections at the polling stations I visited," Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Duma Alexander Babakov said on Monday morning at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.
He noted a high turnout and the presence of numerous observers and representatives of various political forces at the polling stations.
In turn, President of the American-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Helen Teplitskaia (the United States) noted that she was pleased to see the progress of Ukraine's elections. "We have prepared, read the newspapers, and frankly, we didn't expect anything good to come of it. We expected rather a scandalous situation," Teplitskaia said. However, she said that she proved to be wrong.
"There was a high voter turnout, a lot of elderly people and young people went to the polling stations, which was a pleasant surprise, and it seems people went to elections in good mood," Teplitskaia said.
There were a few irregularities however, she said. There was no information about the candidates on the walls of certain polling stations, which is required by electoral norms. But those flaws were quickly corrected, Teplitskaia added.