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Ukraine says ballots in 5 problem precincts will not be recounted

Tuesday, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada issued a recommendation to appoint a runoff in five majority precincts

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

KIEV, November 8 (Itar-Tass) — Ukraine's Central Electoral Commission will not do a recounting of ballots in the five precincts where major problems were registered during the October 28 parliamentary election.

"There's no way to avoid a runoff election there," Andrei Magera, a deputy chief of the country's Central Electoral Commission told a news conference here Thursday.

"The recounting procedures should be observed from A to Z and if the CEC organizes it in at least ten precincts, then we'll be unable to wind it up until next summer," he said. "That's why we should treat the issue critically."

Along with this, Magera recalled that "the CEC doesn't have immediate powers to do a recount of the ballots and that's why this issue is not to be found at the top of the agenda today," Magera said.

Mikhail Okhendovsky, a member of the CEC said earlier in the day the commission will be able to appoint a runoff in the problem precincts as soon as "legal grounds for this appear".

He reiterated the CEC's refusal to establish the results of voting in these precincts at the moment.

Along with this, the CEC does not see any grounds for adding more precincts to the list of problem ones. This means that winners will be identified in 220 of the 225 precincts.

By the time of reporting, winners had been established in 87 precincts.

Okhendovsky also said that the operations of the notorious precinct No. 223 in Kiev where even the preliminary results of voting are still unknown have normalized finally. Slightly more than 94% ballots have been processed there over the past ten days.

The CEC hopes to get an original of the protocol of voting for party tickets from that precinct Friday, November 9.

Tuesday, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada issued a recommendation to appoint a runoff in five majority precincts but the national electoral legislation does not contain provisions that would permit runoffs in separate constituencies.

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