Government is not ready to hold elections in context of Covid-19 pandemic - chairman of CVU

13:59, 05.08.2020 2 min read

KYIV. Aug 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) –Ukrainian government bodies are not ready to hold local elections amid the coronavirus pandemic, said Oleksiy Koshel, Chairman of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU).

"Unfortunately, we have every reason to believe that the Ukrainian government is not ready to hold elections in context of the coronavirus. According to the experts of our organization, the government is not ready for either a tough scenario or a soft scenario for organizing elections in a pandemic," said Koshel during a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.

According to him, it regards the material support of commissions members, which is necessary for the safe conduct of local elections and additional expenses from the state budget for the purchase of protective equipment.

"We are talking about quite large numbers. There are about 33,400 sites in Ukraine, where hundreds of people will work: members of commissions, observers, representatives of law enforcement agencies. Each of these sites must be provided with a sufficient amount of disinfectants. We are not talking about small tubes, but about tons, liters of disinfectants. Each member of the commission must be provided with protective masks, change them every few hours. As a result, we will get a figure of millions of protective masks," said the chairman of CVU.