NGOs have reacted with concern at an attempt to use highly original monitoring by the State Committee on TV and Radio Broadcasting to manipulate public opinion in Ukraine and abroad

The Sociological Association of Ukraine has issued a statement over the law suit lodged against sociological services.

The Donetsk Administrative Court of Appeal has overturned the ruling of the Leninsky District Court in Luhansk which had ordered issue of Nash Vybir – Our Choice suspended until after the elections

OPORA has drawn up a list of heads of regional administrations rated from the point of view of how they are using administrative resource to influence the elections.

According to the monitoring carried out by the Institute for Mass Information, 11% of the material in the printed press was political “dzhynsa” [commissioned material presented as “news”]

Roman Yakel gives more worrying details of efforts by those in power to fiddle the makeup of precinct electoral commissions and / or set the scene for declaring void inconvenient results.

In a joint statement by High Representative/ Vice-President Catherine Ashton and EU Commissioner Štefan Füle concern is expressed over lack of political pluralism on television and of transparency of the activities of the Central Election Commission

In Rozdilna (Odessa region), several blocks were cordoned off by police while municipal workers pulled down leaflets with information against a parliamentary candidate from the Party of the Regions, Oleksandr Presman

The Kharkiv District Administrative Court has allowed an application from the Kharkiv City Council and prohibited one of the leaders of the United Opposition from meeting with voters on Freedom Square on 15 October.

While President Yanukovych asserts that video cameras at polling stations will prove that the coming elections are transparent and elections, analysts and opposition members say that they create pretence while avoiding the real sources of rigging

The Observation Mission for the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations has expressed concern over the non-transparent work of district electoral commissions and a large number of changes of members of precinct electoral commissions.

Monitoring suggests that neither candidates nor parties are upfront about the sources and amounts of their funding, making illicit forms of influence on the election outcome worryingly easy to achieve

Another case of fake leaflets has been reported, this time in the Kakhovska single-mandate electoral district No. 185 with the material purporting to be from the Committee of Voters of Ukraine

Analysts note that some of the candidates are withdrawing because they have powerful rivals, some because they were technical candidates who have already served their purpose.

The CEC has appointed (and for the second time) a person to an electoral commission as representing the Union of Anarchists who in 2010 led an electoral commission representing Viktor Yanukovych.

In an interview given to the newspaper by Mailis Reps, the Co-Rapporteur on Ukraine spoke of the politically motivated cases against members of the opposition, the yet to be kept commitment to resolve the situation given by President Yanukovych, concerns about the elections and more.

The Lviv Regional Police have announced that a criminal investigation has been initiated into the violence against journalist and parliamentary candidate Tetyana Chornovol

The Director of the Democratic Initiatives Foundation and the President of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology warn that there are not enough professional sociologists in Ukraine to run exit polls at all 225 single-mandate electoral districts

Tetyana Chornovil, a well-known journalist who is standing for parliament in a single-mandate electoral district (from the United Opposition) was beaten on Saturday while trying to find out the origin of fake leaflets purporting to be from her

OPORA states that “as a result of wide-scale use of administrative resources in favour of certain parties and candidates, the possibilities for competitive and open political struggle between election players is extremely restricted