10/25/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - Local elections took place in Ukraine

Local elections took place in Ukraine

10.25.2015 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine Agency

Topics from Media and Social Networks

• Local elections took place in Ukraine.
• Prime Minister Yatsenyuk said that the Venice Commission does not object to a complete restart of the judicial system.
• The humanitarian convoy of the International Red Cross was delivered to the occupied territory.

Key Events in Ukraine

• Local elections were held in Ukraine. According to official figures, voters turnout was just over 46%. During the elections "Opora" civic network detected over a thousand violations, which, according to the observers, did not affect their overall result. Elections did not take place in Svatovo, Krasnoarmeysk, Lisichansk and Mariupol. In Severodonetsk and Rubezhnoye elections could be declared invalid due to numerous errors in the ballots. According to the results of the exit polls, in Kharkov the first round was won by incumbent Mayor Kernes, in other major cities the second round of elections will be held on November 15.
• Prime Minister Yatsenyuk said that the Venice Commission does not object to the complete replacement of the judiciary. Attempts to cancel the law on lustration, in his opinion, are a consequence of "cosmetic repairs" of the judicial system, which requires a complete reboot.

Ukraine at War

• According to the Headquarters of the Anti-Terrorist Operation, no shootings were recorded during the day. One soldier was  wounded during the previous day. There are reports on  shelling of "Oktyabrsky" settlement to the north of Donetsk.
• According to media and observers, the militants are knocking down the Ukrainian emblems from the buildings in the center of Donetsk.
• The International Red Cross delivered to the occupied territory of the Donbass 560 tons of humanitarian aid.
• The OSCE Mission, for the first time since the fighting for the bridgehead, managed to get into Debaltsevo.

Ukraine and the World

• In Poland, in the Parliamentary elections, based on the results of exit polls, won the opposition party of Kaczynski "Law and Justice", which will get the majority in the Parliament. The ruling party, "Civic Platform", got the second result.
• In Brussels, was held an emergency EU mini-summit on refugees issues. It was attended by the countries of the "Balkan route" of the migrants. The summit recognized that the flow of refugees is a challenge that can not be answered only by national actions. It was agreed at the meeting to immediately strengthen the control at the external borders, to prevent the movement of the migrants to the borders of other countries in the region, to mutually share the information, to allocate 400 additional police officers for Slovenia . Greece agreed to increase the ability to receive up to 30 thousand refugees due to the UNHCR funding . The leaders agreed to increase the capacity to provide temporary shelter, food, medical assistance for those in need. In addition, the EU will work more closely with Turkey on the implementation of the action plan on migration. The funds of the EIB, the EBRD and the Council of Europe Development Bank will be attracted for financing the project.