The Mint of the National Bank of Ukraine and the “Ukraine” Printing Combine finished printing presidential election ballots on Wednesday. Earlier, Serhiy Kivalov, Chairman of the Central Election Committee, visited the mint to study the process, reports Interfax Ukraine. He noted that everything was on schedule and that the process would be completed by Wednesday, as required by law. The enterprise Spetszviazok will then deliver the ballots, under armed escort, to the electoral districts. Local election committees will forward the ballots to the district election commissions three days before the election date.
Serhiy Kivalov announced that the CEC originally relied on the State Statistics Committee to determine the number of voters in Ukraine (e.g., 37.4 million). To date, online data supplied by the district election commissions points to 36.28 million. The CEC Chairman emphasized that ballots were printed separately for every constituency, since every ballot bears the number of the district election committee and the polling station. There are over 33,000 polling stations. Each will receive ballots with a 4% reserve. Mr. Kivalov added that a total of 40 million ballots would be printed, with the “Ukraine” Printing Combine supplying 20 million and the NBU Mint an equal number.
When asked why 40 million, since fewer ballots would seem in order, considering the number of voters on the lists and even the 4% reserve, Mr. Kivalov explained that it is necessary to afford the possibility that additional names will be entered on the lists as per absentee voting certificates. He referred to the previous elections when in some cases “flights were chartered to have another 10-15 ballots printed and delivered... So we decided to print 40 million ballots.” He stressed that all unused ballots would be placed under “strict control.”
The CEC Chairman stated that the ballots for the polling stations set up abroad, particularly in Russia, would be printed separately, adding that the CEC was considering the Foreign Ministry’s proposal to set up another 420 polling stations in Russia. The CEC will be announcing its decision shortly, but Mr. Kivalov added, “This does not mean that all these 420 polling stations will be set up.”
