Both main election watchdogs – OPORA and the Committee of Voters of Ukraine [CVU] point to a number of infringements of legislation and international standards in Sunday’s by-election for 224 single mandate election district No. 224, but do not believe the infringements distorted the outcome.

Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Rybak has instructed that Pavlo Baloha and Oleksandr Dombrowsky have their MP cards cancelled, as well as their pay, and the powers of their consultants, following the highly controversial court ruling in February

Venice Commission Secretary Thomas Markert mentions the Commission’s concern that the controversial National Referendum Law allows for amendments to be made to the Constitution on the basis of a referendum despite the Constitutional stipulation that all amendments must be passed by a constitutional majority in parliament

The Venice Commission and OSCE have been told by the government and Party of the Regions that an electoral code will not be adopted, and that only a few amendments will be made to the referendum law

While the lack of a law on the re-elections and an official start to the campaign, there is no way of stopping such behaviour which raises concern already about the fairness of the coming re-election

The Commission reiterates previously expressed concern that the role of parliament must not be undermined. It states that "the most problematic provisions in the law under examination concern the possibility to hold referendums on popular initiative on a new Constitution or constitutional amendments."

A spokesperson said that the EU is closely following common democratic principles such as free and fair elections.

On 30 May 2013 Ukraine’s Constitutional Court once again came up with the political goods in a judgement as worthy of EU scrutiny as the manipulative game Kyiv is playing over relations with the Customs Union

Sunday’s preterm elections resulted in all six cities involved gaining Party of the Regions Mayors. While the Committee of Voters of Ukraine [CVU] and OPORA both reported infringements in other places as well, two cities – Yalta and Vasylkiv – were of particular concern

According to the Crimea branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine [CVU], the elections for Mayor of Yalta on 2 June 2013 were flagrantly falsified during the last four hours of voting.

Oleksandr Chernenko, Head of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine believes it possible that procedural infringements during both the voting and the vote count could have influenced the election outcome.

During the elections on 2 June for Mayor of Vasylkiv, in the Kyiv oblast, observers from the election watchdog OPORA, as well as from particularly candidates, faced obstruction

OPORA is concerned about the ramifications for people’s constitutional rights and their right to local self-government of the judgement which postpones elections for Kyiv Mayor and Council until the end of October 2015

The Constitutional Court has once again overturned a previous judgement and, in response from the Party of the Regions submission, stated that the Kyiv council and mayoral elections can be delayed until well after the next scheduled presidential elections

Five months after the parliamentary elections resulted in the Central Election Commission stating that it could not determine the results in certain single-mandate electoral districts, the re-runs have still not been scheduled

The following is an updated report on the latest of many moves which have undermined the will of the voters, with 40 members of the Cherkasy City Council voting to oust the elected Mayor, Serhiy Odarych

In the last week two Ukrainian administrative courts have rejected civil suits brought by private claimants from Donetsk. The refusal to strip another opposition MP, Yury Odarchenko, of his mandate was unexpected, but entirely constitutional. The other was neither

Ukrainian parties have to fill out annual income declarations but when and where these are published is up to them, and what they report is also scarcely regulated

The civic network OPORA reports that after receiving control over the majority of parliamentary committees at the end of last year, the Party of the Regions is now seeking to make their advantage even greater

During blackouts, looters grab their chance. During any high-profile events or disturbances in Ukraine, it’s all too often parliament that needs to be closely watched