This Sunday 25th of October, AEGEE-Europe deployed 26 observers to observe the elections for Mayors, City Councils and Regional Councils in Ukraine. In order for the observers to get a diverse view of the complexity of the country, they were present in cities such as Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Lviv and Odesa.
The overall assessment of the Observation Mission was that violations took place during the elections, despite the professionalism and good will of the Polling Electoral Commissions (PECs). The most flagrant violations took place in state institutions where the citizens are the most vulnerable; where, despite the efforts of the local PEC, important rules were not always respected by members of the public. Many observers also reported problems regarding voting box seals.
The Election staff were generally helpful and positive to the presence of the observers. Equally, proxy’s observers shared their own observations to the AEGEE observers. However, there were cases where the Election staff seemed to struggle with the procedures. The observers also reported cases of overcrowding in some of the polling stations.
Despite a calm election, there were a few incidents of tensions which were detected, such as interventions by PECs members to stop group voting, as well as disagreements between domestic observers and PECs staff on the voting procedures.
While a number of young people displayed motivation to ensure that the elections were carried out in accordance to the law, either as members of the PECs or as members of non-governmental domestic observers, this motivation was sadly not reflected in the participation of young voters who were to a large extent absent in these elections.
Written by AEGEE Election Observation