We are sitting taking lunch in a restaurant in Kotovsk, and listening in satisfied irony to Sting's Russians playing through the speakers. One of the other two teams serving this area is here too and we are sharing insights after having been to five polling stations apiece.
The mood is positive. We like what we have seen. There is much professionalism in evidence and little to suggest a determination to derail the process. On the contrary, we found a genuine desire to get the voting steps right, hampered on occasion only by a lack of clarity on the law.
"Mobile voting" is a case in point. After the last election frauds, a new law was passed restricting access to the mobile voting facility whereby voters could apply to vote at home because of an inabilty to come to the polling station. Only medical certification of inability is sufficient. Yesterday afternoon, however, the constitutional court gave an interpretation that opens up the facility, as before, to those who merely state that they cannot come to the station. The revised law does not come into force until at least Monday following due process.
Half the stations we visited, however, thought the change was in force. In the first polling station we visited in Slovodka they were using the broader interpretation and we and some Ukrainian observers present raised the question. Some debate took place and the regional electoral committee was to be called.
The debate then unearthed our only real concern of the morning. One of the precinct electoral committee members expressed deep concern that a dead person had succeeded in getting added to the mobile voting list. Finally the Chairman of the committee struck off the entire list of mobile voters.
As lunchtime aproached more than one committee begged us to have something to eat. Given the recent poisoning scare we are under strict orders not to accept, so I will turn now to the burning issue of eating my perogis.
Andrew Newton
