Here's an update on the situation in Mariupol:
The head of the Central Election Commission Mykhaylo Okhendovsky said that elections in Mariupol and Krasnoarmiysk can still take place today. According to him, if local election committees accept the ballots and the polling stations open at 6 p.m., the elections can still be recognized as valid, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports.
"The Mariupol Commission at this time has no way out of this situation, except for one -- accept the ballots, send them to the district election commissions and guarantee that the voting takes place," Okhendovsky said. "Otherwise, there will be a criminal liability under Article 157 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. If elections are not held, the punishment of those responsible may be quite severe -- up to seven years [in prison]."
Okhendovsky emphasized that the Central Election Commission will do its best for Mariupol and Krasnoarmiysk elections to take place today.
"If it doesn't happen, the Verkhovna Rada has the right to set a new election date," Okhendovsky said.
Here's a video of the arrest of the Wookiee in Odesa. He was reportedly detained for "illegal campaigning." It seems to have taken at least four police officers to do it...
The former Georgian president, now Odesa governor, Mikheil Saakashvili has voted for the first time in Ukraine, and he rode a bike to the polling station.
"It is very important to go and vote either on a bike, or by foot, but a lot depends on the activity of each of you," he wrote on Facebook in Russian and Ukrainian.
Here's some election numbers, courtesy of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:
132 political parties
83 Ukrainian NGOs monitoring the elections
14 international organizations monitoring the elections
1,500 international observers from 14 countries who have arrived in Ukraine for the elections