Local elections in Ukraine were not conducted in accordance with international standards and did not comply with good practices of election organization and conduct. OPORA bases its conclusion on long-term and short-term observation, the criteria and principles of democratic elections, as stated in documents of the Venice Commission, Copenhagen Committee the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Both Ukrainian domestic and international observation missions should take i...

National and international institutions gave Ukraine 17 top priority recommendations concerning the electoral reform, but Ukraine has implemented only one, particularly obstruction-free registration and activities of official observers. The rest of 16 recommendations were either partially realized, or not realized at all.

On the eve of the official launch of the Presidential election campaign in Ukraine in December 2019, the Civil Network OPORA presents its preliminary analysis of Ukraine's compliance with the recommendations from national and international observation organizations, international non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations, the diplomatic representatives of the partner countries of Ukraine on elections. With the approach of elections crucial for the democratic development of the coun...

Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv has started the training for 35 candidates for civic ombudsmen for protection of electoral rights on Friday, 17 August. It is conducted under the project “Electoral reform to strengthen the power of agents of change and support public dialog”, financed by European Union.

Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine announced that the renewal of Central Election Commission will be a key topic on the next week. Experts of Civil Network OPORA went to the Parliament to ask MPs what is the probability of the CEC's renewal before the elections. The MPs believe it's not likely to happen.

Human Rights Representative of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Liudmyla Denysova and Head of the Board of Civil Network OPORA Olha Aivazovska have signed an official Cooperation Memorandum on 31 July. The Memorandum is aimed at protection of electoral rights and freedoms of citizens.

Can you feel certain that the winning candidate for deputy, whom you supported in the elections, will gain a deputy seat in local council? The correct answer is “of course you can’t”. We will tell the story how the political party was deprived of more than 100 votes in the process of allocation of deputy seats so as to prevent it from clearing the electoral threshold.

In November 2015, elections were stolen from the citizens of Kyiv oblast. “How elections could have been stolen?” – you'd ask. They were held, of course, but mandates were given not to the candidates who won them under this electoral system.