LVIV, October 26 (RIA Novosti) - As is a tradition in Western Ukraine, residents of the Lviv city began the day of the early parliamentary elections in Ukraine Sunday with church prayers before heading to the polling station.
“It is customary [in our city] to pray before taking an important decision. This is the way my grandmother taught me, “an elderly Lviv resident, Maria Kogut, told RIA Novosti.
“Yesterday I attended a general prayer service dedicated to transparent elections at the Shevchenko monument, led by representatives from all Christian faiths. This morning, the priest prayed for a positive outcome in the elections and urged us to go and vote,” she added.
The church of Galichini in Lviv has strong influence on the residents and some election candidates have reportedly used this to their advantage. It is likely that this election too, may not end without a scandal. The Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU) uncovered a violation of the “day of silence” by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC).
"We consider it a hidden campaign, the fact that on Saturday, two candidates took the floor during a celebration at the Lviv [Theater of Opera and Ballet] marking the 25th anniversary of the legalization of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church,” the CVU head for the Lviv Solomiya Savruk region said.
The local sociological research group, Socioinform, set out to find out what the people of Lviv expected from the new Ukrainian parliament, also known as the Verkhovna Rada. According to the director of the research company, Natalia Zaitseva-Chipak, the group surveyed 1,200 residents in the first half of October.
“The majority of the residents, 62 percent, reported that they expected the newly elected authorities to carry out anti-terrorism operations and bring order to the country, 57 percent expect concrete steps towards tackling corruption,” Zaitseva-Chipak said.
“Forty-seven percent expect the living standards to improve, while a third looks towards economic reforms,” she added.
Among other responses, some reported that they expected the country to join the US-led NATO military bloc and wanted the national legislation to emulate European standards.
“Interestingly, only 3 percent hoped to restore relations with Russia,” Zaitseva-Chipak noted.
The residents of Lviv are known to actively participate in elections, and as of 15:00 local time (12:00 GMT Sunday), there was already a 20 percent voter turnout at the polls.
The head of the regional state register of voters Fedor Aleynikov said that 15,000 people had registered to vote.
President Petro Poroshenko dissolved the 450-seat Verkhovna Rada in August and ordered snap general elections to ensure a pro-Europe majority in the parliament while clearing out lawmakers loyal to ex-leader Viktor Yanukovych.
Only 423 deputies are expected to be elected, according to the Central Election Commission, which has ruled out any voting in 12 districts of Crimea as well as 15 districts in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
