KIEV (Sputnik) — The European Parliament will send monitors to the local elections in Ukraine on October 25, EU Ambassador to the country said Monday.
"It is not common for the European Parliament to send monitors to local elections. But considering the situation in your country, we are ready to take this step. And I believe it to be justified," EU envoy Jan Tombinski said at a meeting with the Central Election Commission head Mykhailo Okhendovskyi, as quoted by CEC in Ukrainian.
Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has recently passed a law on local elections, which stipulates open-list voting for members of regional, city and district councils. The system is based on proportional representation, and not first-past-the-post. The threshold for parties was raised to 5 percent, up from 3 percent.
The same law says that elections in what Ukraine regards as occupied territories in Crimea, which joined Russia in March 2014, as well as in southeastern Lugansk and Donetsk regions, will not be held this year.
