Ukraine crisis: Snap elections for parliament
As promised, the Ukrainian President has called for Parliamentary elections and they are being held today with international observers watching. Unfortunately many areas in the east will be prevented from exercising their right to vote. I am surprised the turnout so far seems low. I guess it does not help with bomb threats by the pro-Russian side in several areas.
Voting began in Ukraine's on Sunday in an election that is expected to strengthen President Petro Poroshenko's mandate to end a separatist conflict in the east of the country.
Polling stations opened at 8:00 a.m. local time in the first parliamentary polls since street protests in the capital Kyiv last winter forced Moscow-backed leader Viktor Yanukovich to flee and ushered in a pro-Europe leadership under Poroshenko.
Election observers from Europe and Canada
About 2,000 international observers, including a team of about 800 from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, are in place to monitor polling procedures.
Canada's embassy in Ukraine said 300 of those monitors will be Canadian.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukraine-election-revolution-of-honour-must-win-says-former-pm-1.2813467
President Petro Poroshenko called the poll as he aims to cement a new direction for the country after the ousting of pro-Russian leaders earlier this year.
The separatists in eastern Ukraine plan to hold their own polls next month.
Another 1.8 million people in Crimea, annexed by Russia in March, will also not take part.
The head of an Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) observer mission, Swedish MP Kent Harstedt, said this was the most challenging of all the elections he had observed.
He feared it would difficult to reach out to hundreds of thousands of displaced people in eastern Ukraine, but also said he hoped the poll could be a turning point.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29772078
and this little gem
On Friday Russian President Vladimir Putin said for the first time that Moscow had helped Mr Yanukovych flee.