Quarantine In Ukraine Should Not Stop Local Elections - Official

KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th April, 2020) The head of Ukraine's Central Election Commission has said that the nationwide quarantine aimed at limiting the spread of the new coronavirus does not pose a "legal obstacle" to this year's local elections.

"There is no alternative. The quarantine is not a legal obstacle for the elections," Oleh Didenko said in an interview with a Ukrainian news website, LB.ua, published on Monday.

He pointed to mid-term elections in the eastern Kharkiv region that continued even after the quarantine was imposed on March 12.

"It prompted calls for the elections to be delayed. Some commission members were afraid to go to work, and the turnout might have been lower. But there was no legal reason for the CEC to stop the electoral process," Didenko argued.

Ukrainians will go to the polls in October to elect members of the regional and local councils, parliaments and mayors. The national parliament has not ruled out that the voting might be postponed in light of the deadly pandemic.