One of the humorous political advertisements removed early last week depicted a cat with an elderly woman who says: "I found out my grandson voted for the Party of Regions, so I rewrote [my will] to give my house to the cat."

OPORA reports that Serhiy Shakhov, potential parliamentary candidate for the No. 107 single-mandate electoral district in the Luhansk oblast was summoned for questioning to the Stakhanov Police

According to member of the Parliamentary Committee on Freedom of Speech, Andriy Shevchenko a number of articles of the Law on the Parliamentary Elections are equivocal and can be interpreted in different ways. This creates certain risks for the media.

On 8 August the Central Election Commission registered the United Opposition’s candidate list but without the leader of the Batkivshchyna Party Yulia Tymoshenko and the former Interior Minister Yury Lutsenko

Deputy Head of the Central Election Commission, Andriy Mahera has spoken of the law just signed by the President which will install video surveillance at polling booths

For the coming parliamentary elections to be competitive misuse of administrative resources and bribery of voters must have legal consequences, and all candidates must be equal before the law.

CVU points out the 2012 Elections will not make it possible to form a proportionate number of representatives of the Crimea in the Verkhovna Rada with this not in the interests of Crimean voters

The Luhansk Regional Branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine stresses that "elections can be democratic only on condition that the authorities, and in the first instance, the law enforcement bodies, do not interfere in the election process.”

The Mykolaiv Regional Court of Appeal has upheld the 30 July custody order issued against Ludmila Nikitkina, Deputy Head of the Pervomaisk Election Headquarters of the United Opposition

Simferopol and Sevastopol courts found two young activists of the campaign “Revenge for Dividing Ukraine” guilty under electoral legislation, although the Party of the Regions is continuing to break the law by advertising without registration

The Donetsk Police have admitted that a parliamentary candidate from the United Opposition was summoned for questioning on 3 August but say that this was in connection with a report from a member of the public

Not only have Party of the Regions activists in the Donetsk region used State-owned media sources for party campaigning, but the supposed beneficence was actually part of a State-funded programme

As well as ongoing problems due to flaws in the law on the parliamentary elections, the Committee of Voters of Ukraine draws attention to worrying incidents of direct bribing of voters

Larisa Yefremova, new Director General of the Cherkasy regional TV and Radio Broadcaster “Ros”, is accused of having returned this State-owned media source to days long-forgotten when all that was reported was decided in one office

Party of the Regions activists are going around people’s homes asking people whether they plan to vote for the Party of the Regions and checking details about their place of residence, place of work and family situation

Ludmila Nikitkina, Deputy Head of the Pervomaisk Election Headquarters of the Batkivshchyna United Opposition was arrested on Friday evening on suspicion of an economic crime, three days before the beginning of the parliamentary election campaign

There have been a number of reports in the last week of doctors and other public sector workers in different parts of Ukraine being forced to join the ruling Party of the Regions and / or “express support” for the highly controversial language law

Unlike the 2010 Local Elections, the current campaign is taking place when there is an extremely low level of trust among voters in the government and a sharp fall in the popularity rating of the Party of the Regions.

In the current parliament only three MPs met the criteria posed in 6 core democratic values according to a study carried out by the civic movement CHESNO together with the Committee of Voters of Ukraine

The National TV and Radio Broadcasting Council has cited the scope of providers’ economic activities although it previously imposed penalties for arbitrary changes to the list of channels.