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About 240 polling stations fail to open in Ukraine local elections over electoral breaches

Ukrainians are voting on Sunday to elect deputies of regional, urban and district councils through the proportional electoral system

KIEV, October 25. /TASS/. As many as 237 polling stations failed to open in Ukraine’s local elections over electoral breaches, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry reported on Sunday.

Ukrainians are voting on Sunday to elect deputies of regional, urban and district councils through the proportional electoral system. Voting started at 8:00 a.m. local time [05:00 GMT].

"As of 09:30, 237 polling stations did not open," the ministry said in a statement.

Errors in electoral ballot papers, the absence of a sufficient number of voting booths, unsealed ballot boxes and safes with damaged seals are the main reasons why the polling stations stayed closed, the statement said.

Read also

Polling stations do not open in Mariupol in east Ukraine, elections disrupted

Overall, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry has received 23 reports on electoral violations, the statement said.

According to observers, the local elections in Ukraine set a record in the number of violations even before the day of voting.

Specifically, the Ukrainian Electors’ Committee has drawn up a list of the election campaign hotbeds, which includes 20 cities, such as Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Rovno and Kherson where violations were found in several electoral aspects at once.

The Committee has also found problems in 11 cities with the technical organization of the elections, as well as delays in the preparation of ballot papers or ballot errors, the incompetence or the political bias of territorial electoral commissions.

The Committee also registered the instance of criminalizing the electoral process and tough competition among candidates that may lead to the illegal attempts to influence the electros’ free will.

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