The public will closely monitor the local elections. On September 11, a public observation campaign for the local self-government elections started in the Volyn region. Fifty public activists will observe the course of the election campaign and voting day. The organizer of the public monitoring is the Civil Network OPORA - a non-governmental, non-partisan and financially independent network of public activists that has significant experience in observing election campaigns. Over the next fifty days, OPORA observers will monitor the democratic nature, legality and transparency of the election process in all regions of the country, including in Volyn. Here, observation will be conducted by four long-term observers, as well as 46 short-term observers who will work directly on voting day. In addition to the general process of observing the conduct of the election campaign, OPORA activists will analyze the election programs and promises of candidates, and subsequently inform society about their fulfillment. "The Civil Network OPORA is the only organization that will observe the local self-government elections in all regions of the country. This is the first time a nationwide campaign is being implemented during local elections," says Mykhailo Shelep, the network's regional coordinator in the Volyn region. "The difficulty of monitoring these elections lies in the fact that several thousand election campaigns are taking place simultaneously across the country, differing in level of conduct, issues, and participants. But observation of local elections is needed like never before, because it is precisely at the local level that various kinds of falsifications are most often used. Therefore, public observers will track all stages of the election process." Throughout the entire election campaign, the Civil Network OPORA will promptly inform media representatives about all detected violations recorded by public observers.

Contacts of the coordinator of the public observation campaign in the Volyn region: Mykhailo Shelep, mobile phone: 067-41-65-086, e-mail: mike.shelep@gmail.com