KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th October, 2020) Almost 500,000 Ukrainian voters in Donbas were disenfranchised in the country's latest local elections, the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO) said on Tuesday.
"Universal suffrage and the right to vote are generally provided for in Ukraine. However, nearly half a million Ukrainian voters were disenfranchised in these elections, due to the decision of the Verkhovna Rada [national parliament] not to conduct elections in 18 communities in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, on account of security concerns caused by the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukrainian territories and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea," Pierre Peytier, deputy head of the ENEMO mission, said, quoted in a press release.
He at the same time welcomed simplified measures for voter registration of internally displaced persons and voters without registration.
"However, few requests were filed and few voters took advantage of this possibility to register in the election, while some cases of abuse of this procedure were noted," Peytier added.
The deputy head of the mission also asserted that a survey that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy coupled with the local elections had given an unfair advantage to the ruling party and affected the level playing field. During the poll, Ukrainians were asked about their views on life imprisonment for corruption, a possible free economic zone in Donbas, reduction of parliament members, legalization of cannabis for medical purposes, and the country's right to use the security guarantees under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.
The local elections were held on Sunday across Ukraine, except for the eastern breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk regions, known together as Donbas. The Ukrainian parliament says elections may only be held there after local "armed groups" withdraw and give up control of the Russian-Ukrainian border. Earlier, Russia's envoy to the Contact Group on Ukraine, Boris Gryzlov, said that the Verkhovna Rada's decision on elections contradicted the Minsk agreements.
