20 May 2014
The Ukrainian government has created a special headquarters, under the management of Vice-PM Vitaliy Yarema, that will coordinate elections commissions and a special forces that will participate in the assurance of security at the presidential elections. PM Aresniy Yatsenyuk assured journalists on May 19 that elections will be held successfully on May 25.
Ukraine’s Internal Affairs Minister Arsen Avakov reported that 14 districts in Donetsk and Luhansk regions (out of 36 districts and 42 cities with the status of district) fall in the “red zone” of a very high risk of election failure. He assured that most of the attention of the law enforcement troops would be directed to these districts. Anriy Mahera, a member of Ukraine’s Central Election Commission, provided a bit more pessimistic information on the readiness for the elections – according to his information, 74% of polling stations in the Donetsk region and 84% in the Luhansk region had not received voters’ lists, as of midday, May 19