October 26 parliamentary election puts Ukraine’s democracy to another test
Ukraine’s democracy is undergoing another stress test.
After successfully holding a presidential election on May 25 even as Russia occupied Crimea and was instigating war in the east, Ukraine will on October 26 hold a snap parliamentary election. The vote will exclude millions of voters in war-torn Donbas and, of course, Crimea.
Mykhailo Okhendovsky, the Central Election Commission head, said on September 30 that elections may not be held in 10 out of 21 single-mandate districts in Donetsk Oblast and seven out of 11 districts in Luhansk Oblast. Donetsk and Luhansk regions, before the war, were home to nearly 15 per cent of Ukraine’s population, or more than 6.6 million people.
For the full story, please visit The Kyiv Post.
(Photo of Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, by Jurij Skoblenko via flickr.com)
