Ukraine starts voting for president early on May 25

Polling stations in Ukraine opened early on Sunday. Ukrainians are coming to vote for a new president.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine called these elections after ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, who was elected as the fourth Ukrainian president at regular elections in January 2010, fled Ukraine on February 22, 2014. At that point, the confrontation that is already referred to as "the Revolution of the Ukrainian People's Dignity," had already lasted for several months, and had ended with bloodshed.

The experts believe that at the moment Ukraine is going through the most acute socio-political crisis since the country gained independence from the Soviet Union. The crisis was further escalated by intervention and military confrontation with the Russian Federation at the time when there is only an acting president in the country.

At the moment, according to the Constitution, the current chairman of parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, Oleksandr Turchynov, is the acting president of Ukraine. Thus, these presidential elections are very important, as they will allow a president with full powers to be elected in the country.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) registered 23 presidential candidates, but subsequently two of them withdrew from the race before May 1, which is the deadline established by the law. Therefore the names of 21 candidates are on the ballot papers.

In addition, after May 1, a number of candidates, particularly Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko, said that they would refuse to participate in the elections, even though this is not foreseen by the law. Besides, they are urging their representatives in election commissions not to take part in the commissions' work. Observers are worried that sabotage by commission members might cause problems on election day.

A total of 225 election districts were created for the elections, although after the annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol by Russia, the Verkhovna Rada and the CEC passed a resolution regarding the inability of holding elections for Ukraine's president on this territory. Thus, the number of districts decreased by 12 and amounted to 213.

However, Crimea and Sevastopol citizens can vote at the elections. To do this, the had to come to continental Ukraine and submit an appeal to the agencies that maintain the state voters register regarding a temporary change of voting station, and then come there again to vote. This opportunity was used by 6,000 voters among 1.8 million living in Crimea.

Overall, there are 33.7 million voters in Ukraine, not including those in Crimea and Sevastopol. This includes 3.3 million voters in Donetsk region and 1.8 million in Luhansk region.

The elections in these two regions could be prevented at the majority of their voting stations due to the current armed conflict involving illegal paramilitary forces. According to the CEC, the work of over half of the district election commissions has been partially or fully blocked in these regions, The commissions' buildings were taken over by activists of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" and "Luhansk People's Republic," who have been declared terrorist organizations by the PGO.

As of early May 24, according to the Ukraine's Interior Ministry, the work of 9 polling stations among 22 in Donetsk region has been halted. The same situation in Luhansk region: 8 of 12 polling centers in the region don't work.

The observers also report that both commission members and voters themselves have received direct threats by phone or in printed form with the demand that they refuse to attend the elections.

In addition, the Verkhovna Rada made amendments to the law on presidential elections in Ukraine, according to which the elections will be considered valid regardless of the number of election districts or voting stations at which voting fails to take place for one reason or another.

According to the law, up to two rounds of presidential elections are conducted in Ukraine. A candidate can win in the first round if he or she is supported by over 50% of the voters. Otherwise, a second round of voting is conducted between the top two candidates in the first round.

The Central Election Commission is to release the official results of the first round of voting on or before June 4. If none of the candidates wins outright in the first round, the CEC must set up the second round of voting for June 15.

A total of UAH 1.965 billion from Ukrainian state budget for the current year are envisaged for the presidential elections, although due to the amendments to the law this number was decreased to UAH 1.174 billion, UAH 516 million of which are reserved for the second round.

In particular, this is connected to lowering the number of commission members from every presidential candidate from two to one and limiting the term of commissions' powers, as the majority of the election expenses go on salaries for commissions' members.

A total of 3,607 official international observers have been registered by the CEC to monitor the elections (302 – from the foreign states, 3,305 – from the international organizations and over 500 – from Russia).

The experts said that elections in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where there are 15.1% of the total number of electors, all in all could be frustrated in a significant part of the districts. However, this unlikely to influence a result of the elections in general all over Ukraine, since the most popular candidates don't meet an essential support in Donbas.

According to the polls, the principal competitors at these elections are popular Ukrainian businessman Petro Poroshenko and Batkivschyna all-Ukrainian Union leader Yulia Tymoshenko. Popular Ukrainian sportsman and UDAR party leader Vitali Klitschko, who had earlier announced his intention to participate in the presidential elections and who had been called the most likely to win, refused to run in the elections in the favor of Poroshenko. However, Klitschko decided to participate in Kyiv mayoral elections, which will be held on May 25 as well.

The presidential elections in Ukraine are held together with early regional elections in certain populated areas of the country. In particular, apart from in Kyiv, there will be mayoral elections in six other regional centers – Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Sumy, Cherkasy and Chernivtsi.