Realization of electoral rights of Ukrainian citizens on AR Crimea territory may be endangered during Parliamentary election. Georgia, Moldova, Serbia and Azerbaijan managed to work out mechanisms and secure voting rights of citizens on occupied territories. Taking into consideration positive international experience, Ukrainian experts, members of the CEC and MPs should develop mechanisms and overcome the challenges with consideration of Ukrainian realities. Ukrainian and international experts have stressed such a need during the roundtable titled: "Presidential election on occupied territories of the Crimea AR: constitutional rights of Ukrainian citizens should be protected."
Olha Aivazovska, Electoral Programs Coordinator of the Civil Network OPORA, emphasized that it's important to secure the legitimacy of election process, trusted by the whole society: "Organization of voting on May 25 on the whole territory of Ukraine is a challenge, political in the first place. Despite the legislation was already amended, and the voting in districts or polling stations not participating in the election process may be omitted, their political challenge remains topical. Presidential elections should be trusted by the whole society and considered legitimate. Thus, we should secure overcoming these challenges on legislative level."
Denys Kovryzhenko, expert of the IFES, had mentioned some mechanisms for securing citizen electoral rights in emergency conditions: for example in citizens Azerbaijan, displaced from the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, are included in voter lists on regular and specially created polling stations, and vote according to the general procedure. Georgia had another experience: "They were trying to attract Abkhazia to the election process until 2008, when the Law on Occupied Territories was adopted, which determined the extraordinary status of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, occupied in result of military intrusion of the Russian Federation. Today, the elections are not conducted on these territories till their special status is canceled." - Mr. Kovryzhenko emphasized. The expert has also mentioned a special experience of Serbia, which organized voting during Serbian national elections after Kosovo's independence was proclaimed. Special polling stations in Serbian enclaves in Kosovo were created; electoral documentation was received and transferred with representatives of international organizations participating (particularly OSCE).
Organization of the voting process in Moldova has the certain peculiarities too. Expert of the Promo-Lex Pavel Postica has mentioned that almost 10% of Moldovian voters are living in Transnistria. "The biggest problem is the absence of voter lists for Transnistria region. Voter lists of the Republic of Moldova are still compiled by local public administrations, which are not controlled by the central Moldovian government now," - Mr. Postica emphasized. Therefore, special polling stations are created in Moldova on adjacent to Transnistria territories: both mixed and for Transnistria citizens separately. According to the expert, the absence of voter lists may cause long queues at polling stations and paralyze their functioning. Another problem is attempts to stop people from coming to polling station on blockhouses and border territories.
One of the innovation approaches to electoral challenges on occupied territories is electronic voting. Olekssi Lychkovakh, Development Director of the Central and Eastern Europe of countries, Scytl-Innovating Democracy, is convinced that the method of passive registration won't work out in Crimea, and it's necessary to provide the possibility of online registration for interested citizens. For example, after the online registration was introduced for citizens living abroad, the number of voters who participated in voting increased from 9% to 65%. "The voters, who have already registered online, receive the access to the website where they can vote. The password can be received by e-mail, SMS, or electronic signature," - Mr. Lychkovakh stressed. The expert emphasized that implementation of online voting pilot program for 1.5 million voters in Crimea will cost 1-5 million Euro. Besides that, certification and the awareness campaign will be required for experts and voters.
Yurii Kliuchkovskyi, President of the Election Law Institute, has emphasized that the current situation and the problem of organizing of the election process in Crimea should be taken into consideration: "To organize the election process for people leaving Crimea today and receiving the refugee status in Ukraine – is one question. Perhaps it's even possible to count these votes as given by Crimean citizens. The other question is how to organize the voting process for the citizens, who are staying in Crimea. To upset the voting on May 25 – is a dream of the aggressor." Therefore, Mr. Kluichkovskyi proposed to solve these problems in a way, which would be safe for the whole election process, i.e. to organize the voting of Crimea citizens in adjacent oblasts of Ukraine, and to attract the Majlis of Crimean Tatar People to organization of the election process on Crimean territory.
Head of the Board of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine Oleksandr Chernenko is convinced that the occupation regime will be interested that Ukrainians didn't go and vote to show their position and confirm Ukrainian citizenship. "It's virtually impossible to organize the election process on Crimean territory in today's conditions,but we shouldn't give up on such chance anyway," - Mr. Chernenko stated. The expert has emphasized that it will be difficult even to organize the voting in adjacent oblasts, in particular to secure safe transference of the voters. However, Mr. Chernenko is convinced that the government should make the certain efforts to provide the opportunity to vote for every Crimean citizen who wants to participate.