within the boundaries of the relevant city, town or village. Parties or candidates themselves can propose to run election in rural areas and for the posts of rural areas heads; only local parties can propose candidates for the post of city mayors. The Supreme Council of Crimea decided to hold the 2010 Crimean parliamentary election simultaneously with the Ukrainian local elections on August 4, 2010. Costs Ukraine's Central Electoral Commission estimated the cost of holding local elections at 3.1 million Hryvnya in May 2010 and over 1 billion Hryvnya in July 2010. The Ukrainian Finance Ministry and the Central Election Commission signed a joint protocol, which envisaged a provision of 1.024 billion Hryvnya of budget funds the elections on September 14, 2010. Results The ruling Party of Regions won clear majorities in most regions and big cities throughout Ukraine (except in the west of the country); it is the biggest party in two-thirds of all cities. It was followed by All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland". The Ukrainian nationalistic party Svoboda achieved notable success in Eastern Galicia. Batkivshchyna, the party of the previous Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, remains the main opposition force although it was defeated in most regions (because of anomalies in the electoral law the party was unable to register their candidates in several districts). Our Ukraine, the party of previous President Yushchenko, met with total failure. Strong Ukraine gained about 6 percent of the votes nationwide. Ukraine's Central Election Commission has declined to publish nationwide results, citing, "these are local elections and traditionally we don't do that". Opposition politicians and the Communist Party have complained of irregularities in the election. According to a survey of 2,000 people conducted in October 2010 by two Ukrainian nongovernmental organizations, the Democratic Initiatives Fund and OPORA, one in five Ukrainians were willing to sell his or her vote in the upcoming local elections. OPORA stated on November 1, 2010 that “there have been so many violations that we cannot say that [the election] was democratic, transparent and open.” But according to Prime Minister Mykola Azarov "The elections were absolutely without the use of administrative resources, naturally. Nobody interfered with our citizens." According to President Viktor Yanukovych "there were no systematic violations. This is emphasized by international observers and the police”. International reactions The Council of Europe uncovered a number of problems in relation to a new electorate law approved just prior to the elections.