A critical situation has developed in Ukraine regarding the organization of elections to local self-government bodies. All necessary changes were not made to the legislation on local elections in a timely manner, the structures of most political parties do not have real representation at the district level, and the Verkhovna Rada did not announce the scheduling of local elections in a timely manner. This was reported to the Western Information Corporation on December 1 by the press service of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine.\n\nDuring October-November 2005, experts from the regional branches of the CVU in all oblasts of Ukraine, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and the cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol conducted monitoring of the situation that has developed with preparations for the campaign for elections of people's deputies and local government bodies, which will subsequently grow into long-term monitoring of the election process.\n\nThe CVU also published the main threats to future elections. According to this public organization, a disruption of the election schedule due to delays in funding as a result of the late adoption of the 2006 state budget could become an obstacle. According to the committee, the simultaneous holding of parliamentary and local elections against the backdrop of inconsistent legislation will make normal organization of the election process impossible.\n\nCVU experts also predict the mass spread of slanderous and unverified information, and the use by certain political forces of themes and slogans that lead to confrontation in society and threaten civil peace.\n\nAs the CVU assumes, unfinished investigations of cases involving falsifiers of past elections may now be used for political speculation and accusations of political pressure.\n\nThe Committee of Voters also believes that several million Ukrainian citizens who are abroad are limited in exercising their voting rights and will not be able to participate in voting.