This was discussed at the "Independent Public Press Center 'Volyn Choice – 2006'" during a meeting of journalists with the head of the Volyn branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, Oleksandr Stirk, the head of the regional election headquarters of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, Yevhen KyryLchuk, and the head of the Volyn regional organization of the Party of Regions, Anatoliy Horbatiuk.
As Oleksandr Stirk noted, the elections in Volyn took place "transparently and democratically," that is, without those violations that could significantly affect the voting results. However, even today there are a number of problems related to organizational and technical preparation. In particular, despite a series of seminars conducted by members of the Volyn branch of the CVU, "the level of preparation of members of polling stations and commissions is insufficient." Oleksandr Stirk confirmed this thesis by the fact that this morning the regional branch of the CVU "was approached with the question of how to fill out the protocol."
In addition, a number of violations were recorded during the voting process, such as: issuing ballots without presenting an identity document; long queues at polling stations, due to which voting took place outside the booth; inaccuracies with voter lists.
Expressing his opinion on the voting day in Volyn, Yevhen KyryLchuk expressed complaints about the current legislation and noted that the main cause of queues and the low number of citizens who took part in the elections is the number of voters at polling stations. According to him, this number should not reach 1,500 people per station. Moreover, at those stations that had up to 1,000 people, "the elections ended and protocols were drawn up," while at others they continue to count votes. "We stepped on the same rake for the second time as in the presidential elections," summarized Yevhen KyryLchuk, commenting on the problems at polling stations and inaccuracies with voter lists, but he is generally satisfied with the election results, since they were "truly democratic."
The inadequacies in the election legislation were experienced by Anatoliy Horbatiuk, who himself, two days before voting day, did not find himself on the voter lists. According to him, he went through the registration process from the polling station to the territorial election commission, and even for him it turned out to be quite difficult. These difficulties were determined by a number of details, such as, for example, the absence of a sample claim form in the city-district court.
However, on the whole, Anatoliy Horbatiuk is also satisfied with the elections and considers them one of the stages of gaining experience. According to him, "people voted for whichever political forces they wanted to vote for."
All participants of the round table emphasized that the voters themselves are to blame for not being able to vote. In particular, Oleksandr Stirk noted that "there must be internal responsibility before civic duty," since most voters did not check themselves on the lists, and some remembered this a day or two before voting day. Representatives of both political forces agreed that political structures had not done enough work in this direction. Moreover, they noted that perhaps it would have been worth first conducting a population census, and then the elections themselves.