Parliamentary by-election campaign in Ukraine is quite competitive, and offers a range of political alternatives for the voters to choose from. At the same time, the correlation of active and inactive candidates shows that so-called technical candidates prevail in number over the real ones. These technical candidates played an important role in formation of PECs and, therefore, mutual oversight of election participants in this commissions is hazarded.

OPORA's observers reported a number of violations from 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Although not wide-scale, most of them prove that electoral subjects grossly violated the law.

As of 12:00 PM, observers of the Civil Network OPORA reported some non-systematic violations. For example, there were many incidents when ballot papers were issued without passport verification. Thus, observers detected such violations at 6 polling stations in Volyn, Poltava and Chernihiv oblasts.

Based on the reports of OPORA's observers, preparatory meetings and beginning of the voting process in 17 July 2016 parliamentary by-election in Ukraine occurred in accordance with the law and in a calm atmosphere. The voters are able to vote at any polling station without hindrance. However, there were some organizational difficulties and conflicts at some PECs.

On Monday, 18 July, at 11:30 a.m., in the UNIAN Information Agency (4 Khreshatyk St., Kyiv), Civil Network OPORA will cover the course of election day in parliamentary by-election in seven single-mandate districts on its press-conference. OPORA's representatives will summarize the election day observation findings and tell about the most typical violations and incidents at election precincts. Experts will also analyze the functioning of bodies and institutions responsible for election admini...

Speaking about the major trends of parliamentary by-election in 7 districts, we should mention that so-called technical candidates prevail in number over the real candidates. Besides that, visits of national politicians to electoral districts, incidents of indirect bribery and misuse of administrative resources became more frequent as the election day gets closer.