In one case the armed pro-Russian militants were helped to remove documentation and computer technology by the police ‘guard’

The Luhansk Regional Branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine stresses that election commission members must not be used as cannon fodder in the fight between the Kyiv authorities and Luhansk separatists, and believes in some districts the elections cannot be held.

In the latest attack on election commissions in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, gunmen behaved extremely aggressively and stole not only commission documentation, but also members’ personal items

Oleksandr Chernenko, head of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine has spoken of the methods which pro-Russian militants are applying to deter heads of district election commissions in eastern regions from taking part in the elections.

Pro-Russian separatists have threatened members of the Antratsyt District Election Commission with reprisals against them and their families if they continue to work towards the May 25 presidential elections. Others have turned up at the DEC in Krasny Luch

Masked and heavily armed men have attacked a district election commission and injured its head. They appear to be working in close coordination with a Party of the Regions deputy and with police tacit support, if not connivance

“Attempts to deprive residents of the Luhansk region, Ukrainian citizens, of the opportunity to vote at the early presidential elections on May 25, 2014 are illegal and criminal"

Andriy Mahera, deputy head of the Central Election Commission has however reported that the Central Election Commission has been forced to close 14 offices of the State Registrar of Voters in Donbas due to the recent events

Yet another survey has found extremely low support for the changes at present being pushed by Kremlin-supported militants in the east of Ukraine, while giving some interesting results regarding the presidential elections due on May 25.

A small majority in parliament on Tuesday adopted a law introducing amendments to the gravely flawed local elections act. Among the most important changes are those concerning the makeup of election commissions which played a major role in vote rigging over recent elections.

Ukraine’s leading election watchdogs warn of procrastination in passing vital amendments to the most heavily criticized electoral law in Ukraine’s history

The Committee of Voters of Ukraine has marked the beginning of the presidential election campaign by issuing a list of members of election commissions believed to have been involved in vote rigging and other irregularities during previous elections

All election observers noted the large number of “titushki” or athletic young men, often hired to pick fights, etc in or around polling stations and near electoral commissions

Maria Tomak, an official OPORA observer at Obukhiv (Kyiv oblast), was removed by members of the precinct electoral commission for “provocative behaviour” after she recorded an attempt by one of the PEC members to steal ballot papers

As well as rampant vote-buying, the Committee of Voters of Ukraine reports a suspicious number of unidentified individuals around or in polling stations and the district election commissions; obstruction of observers and numerous other infringements

The re-elections in 5 “problem electoral districts” have been almost ignored because of the pro-EU EuroMaidan protest. There is logic to this since the selective justice and other dodgy aspects of these parliamentary re-runs highlight the problems which the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement would have helped to resolve

Two electoral districts in particular have broken all records. At present there are 82 for No. 94 (Obukhiv, Kyiv oblast) and 66 candidates for No. 223 (Kyiv) including three Yury Levchenkos and two Viktor Pylypyshyns

One month into the election campaign for the parliamentary re-runs in five problem constituencies, the Committee of Voters of Ukraine [CVU] is already pointing to a lack of lack on election commissions and a surfeit of technical candidates

The president’s latest appointment as Lviv regional governor has elicited outrage in the region and warrants attention beyond. Police General Oleh Salo will be the fifth to hold this post since Yanukovych became president. The choice is at very least provocative.

Olha Aivazovska from OPORA predicts that the campaign will be much more peaceful until the Vilnius Summit and assumes that problems will begin with the formation of district electoral commissions