Campaign and party financing lacked transparency and media coverage was tilted in favour of the ruling party. Continued imprisonment of prominent opposition activists cast a shadow over the election process.

Efforts to ensure that all infringements on Election Day in Ukraine were reported hit a major hurdle at around 14.00 with a number of sites coming under a DDoS attack whch last well beyond the end of voting

In Electoral District No. 53 in the city of Yenakiyeve observers have detected the use of carousel voting with 2 carloads voting in at least three polling stations

MPs have passed in its first reading a draft bill which would considerably simplify the procedure for electing and dismissing the parliamentary speaker and also introduce new rules on forming factions and groups.

These include not enough ballot papers, voters being brought to polling stations in minivans apparently organized by the local authorities and others

Vitaly Holts, a journalist from the publication New Alternative has informed them that at polling precinct No. 741085 (Chernihiv, electoral district No. 206) members of the precinct electoral commission refused to accept a formal report of an electoral infringement

The Head of the Crimean Branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine [CVU] Andriy Krysko reports that at many polling stations in a number of single-mandate electoral districts CVU observers have not been admitted

If the information from the Coalition of Participants in the Orange Revolution reported by Ukrainska Pravda is true, then he District Administrative Court in Kyiv has banned protests in the centre of Kyiv up till 12 November inclusive.

In its report for October, OPORA highlights the main infringements, some of which already make it difficult to call the elections fair or competitive, as well as problems with CEC decisions and in electoral legislation

OPORA will be providing observers at all voting precincts in the 10 the most problematic areas, as identified by long-term monitoring

The European Union, while making its assessment of the holding of parliamentary elections in Ukraine, will take into account the fact that "key opposition representatives" cannot participate in them

In an opinion article entitled Ukraine’s Troubling Trends, Hillary Clinton and Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative on Foreign Affairs and Security Policy have outlined some of the concerns regarding next Sunday’s parliamentary elections

On 23 October an official observer from the civic network OPORA, Olha Martynovska was not allowed to attend the meeting of District Electoral Commission No. 59 (centre: Maryinka, Donetsk oblast).

OPORA notes that this is not the first time that attempts have been made by DEC to obstruct observers from registering. This time, on receipt of the official refusal, OPORA will turn to the court

The Secretary General of the Council of Europe says that he has told Ukraine’s leaders that the fact that the elections are taking place without Tymoshenko will probably lead to further protest and that there is the danger that because of this the elections will not be viewed as fair and free

Members of staff of a territorial social services centre in Dnipropetrovsk say that they were made to give written statements of support for the Party of the Regions at the elections and to provide personal data

Kateryna Dyachuk, a journalist from the Institute for Mass Information reports that an apparent member of representative of electoral precinct No. 800247 in electoral district No. 215 (the Desnyansky District in Kyiv) tried to campaign on behalf of the Party of the Regions

The Donetsk Regional Branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine has issued an official appeal to journalists and the media following the latest example of entirely erroneous information supposedly emanating from the CVU

Andriy Krisko, Head of the Crimean Branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine [CVU] has expressed grave concern over the increasingly wide-scale use of illegal activities during the election campaign in the Crimea

Fedir Nehoy is the General Director of the market, and is considered by analysts to be in the first three candidates for No. 186 electoral district along with Zhuravko from the Party of the Regions and Kateryna Samoilyk from the Communist Party