News

Ukraine Main issues on voting day - voter bribery and attempts to falsify the vote

October 26, 2020

The Committee of Voters of Ukraine reports that the most serious problem by the end of voting yesterday was voter bribery. Bribing of voters to change their address to vote in a specific constituency was also reported, as well as instances of bussing voters to constituencies. The second major problem of Election Day were instances of falsifying the vote, including instances where voters were forced to vote, ballots went missing, or ballot papers having already been filled in before being issued to voters.

more ... Main issues on voting day - voter bribery and attempts to falsify the vote

Ukraine Local elections were highly competitive, violations specific to communities but not centrally planned

October 26, 2020

Opora reports that according to preliminary results, local elections were highly competitive and generally complied with legislation. Violations were specific to certain communities and could have an impact on the results there but were not centrally planned. However, massive violations and incidents of non-compliance of election and campaign procedures, attempts to bribe voters, misuse of administrative resources, and abuse of the procedure for changing one’s electoral address have been recorded.

more ... Local elections were highly competitive, violations specific to communities but not centrally planned

Ukraine Election alert #1 - Local elections in Ukraine - a challenging context and a test for Zelensky’s party

October 23, 2020

The upcoming local elections in Ukraine will take place in a very challenging context: newly introduced electoral legislation with little time for participants in the election to familiarize themselves with it, lacking clarity on COVID19 measures and funding for equipment may pose a threat to the election process, cancelled elections in constituencies in Donetsk and Luhansk have left voters disenfranchised. For President Zelensky, this election is key to win back some popular support lost since his election.

more ... Election alert #1 - Local elections in Ukraine - a challenging context and a test for Zelensky’s party

Ukraine Basic problems before the voting day - results from long-term monitoring

The Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU) presented results of its long-term monitoring two days before the local elections. Main issues identified were use of shadow funds; black PR and violence against candidates; electoral tourism; lack of state funding for personal protective equipment of precinct election commission members. CVU also recommended that voters decide before going to the polling station who they wish to vote for to reduce the time spent there.

more ... Basic problems before the voting day - results from long-term monitoring

Ukraine On the eve of local elections: agitation violations, voter bribery, unequal application of anti-COVID measures in the regions

OPORA announced in its press conference on the eve of local elections that despite unequal distribution of anti-COVID provisions to polling stations and election commissions, there is still time for local authorities to fully comply with the standards set to counteract COVID19 during the elections. The last few days before the election was accompanied by typical abuses and violations, and incidents of foreign interference were investigated by OPORA and other experts.

more ... On the eve of local elections: agitation violations, voter bribery, unequal application of anti-COVID measures in the regions

Georgia Concrete measures should be taken to reduce pandemic risks in parliamentary elections

Organizations in Georgia have raised concern over the epidemiological situation ahead of next week’s parliamentary elections and call on the government to expand the Crisis Council, which should allow all important actors related to the elections to participate; develop a plan to manage COVID outbreak; to define a number of people infected that would trigger calling a state of emergency, postponing of elections, and imposing of restrictions.

more ... Concrete measures should be taken to reduce pandemic risks in parliamentary elections

Belarus Human rights coalition adds more persons to political prisoners list

The persecution of peaceful protesters continues in Belarus and the human rights coalition has added more names to the list of political prisoners, which currently comprises 102 persons. Viasna human rights activists also still consider those political prisoners currently under house arrest, who were released from pre-trial detention after Aliaksandr Lukashenka’s visit to the KGB prison on October 10, as political prisoners, since the conditions of their house arrest amount to imprisonment.

more ... Human rights coalition adds more persons to political prisoners list

Ukraine Is Russia interfering in Ukrainian elections?

An investigation initiated by OPORA, the Digital Security Lab (Ukraine), and the International Centre for Defence and Security (Estonia) discovered that Emails by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) to the European Solidarity party were in fact fake emails sent by Russian-origin offenders imitating the SBU, trying to publicly discredit the SBU, which represents probable evidence of Russia's interference in the election process in Ukraine.

more ... Is Russia interfering in Ukrainian elections?

more News