Observers of the Civil Network OPORA haven't noticed any systematic misuses or gross procedural violations of electoral legislation from 8:00 AM and 12:00 PM in early election of Kryvyi Rih mayor.

However, observers detected over 12 incidents of organized transportation of voters to election precinctsby Kryvyi Rih City Association of Veterans. Although such incidents are not classified as violations, they open the doors for illegal influence on the voters. Besides that, transportation of voters, or free transportation services, may be considered voter bribery if combined with campaigning. Such actions are be punished under the Criminal Code by up to three years of restriction of liberty or deprivation of liberty for the same period with no right to hold the certain positions or be involved into the certain activities from one to three years.

Observers have also noticed that a voter received some money after voting (at PEC #121627, located in School #59, Inhuletskyi district).

There were no other significant violations that could influence the election outcomes. Thus, the voters didn't notice any incidents of violation of the voting secrecy, issuance of ballots without passport verification, obstruction to the exercise of voting rights, and ballot-box stuffing as of 12:00 PM. Attempts of taking picture of a ballot paper were detected at 1.25% of polling stations, what is under statistical error percentage.

According to the data gathered by OPORA's observers, deployed to polling stations selected by a representative sampling, the voter turnout as of 12:00 PM is 23.7% (margin of error ±1.1%).

(#вибори16; #elect_ua; #opora; #опора; #кривийріг; #kryvyjrih)
 
Reference:
Civil Network OPORA conducts citizen observation of early mayoral election in Kryvyi Rih, scheduled for 27 March 2016. Civic monitoring conducted by OPORA - is a type of network activity, aimed at impartial assessment of the preparation and conduct of elections, as well as preventing electoral violations through comprehensive civic action. A team of 5 observers have been working in the city since 6 February, and a group of short-term observers will join them on the election day to cover the third part of election precincts in Kryvyi Rih.