No operational and in-depth information on the course and results of elections on October, 25, gave rise to doubts about the process integrity, even with no actual grounds therefor. In general, TECs and PECs are ready to run the “second round,” and the candidates’ campaigns are less dynamic or noticeable. At the same time, a key challenge for the organization and conduct of the repeat vote is still the growing number of people infected with COVID-19. Representatives of the Civil Network OPORA...

The process of establishing voting results and the results of the local elections of October 20, 2020, being predictably long-running and not entirely transparent, has provoked excessive suspicion and sometimes reasonable criticism of the election administration bodies on the part of various election participants and voters, too.

In Ukraine, during the two election campaigns in 2019, it became obvious that social media turned into a platform to easily and efficiently contact the voters. Since that time, OPORA has been monitoring the promo activities of Ukrainian political actors on the social media such as Facebook. In February and March, we traced the most active group of pages using the political ads tool (Політичні війни, Вільний Донбас, Економічні війни, Все гарно в Україні). They are paying for the promotion of v...

When will be the second round held in communities with 75,000 voters or more, if none of the candidates receives 50% + 1 vote? The date varies for each community.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine sent an official note to the Hungarian side and asked the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine to give a legal assessment of the actions of the Secretary of State of the Office of the Prime Minister of Hungary for National Policy Janos Arpad Potapy.

Based on a nationally representative number of PECs, OPORA's observers assessed the process of their closing and vote count process in Ukrainian local elections.

According to preliminary observation findings on election day October, 25, OPORA hereby acknowledges a competitive and democratic nature of local elections in Ukraine. Any recorded irregularities could have a significant effect on voting results in certain territorial communities but they had different causes. They were administered by different electoral actors and did not have any centrally engineered schemes.

Based on the preliminary results of its election observation, OPORA notes a highly competitive nature of the local elections, which were generally in compliance with the legislation of Ukraine. Citizens could choose from a wide variety of candidates (political parties) who had been provided with adequate conditions and resources to conduct wide-ranging election campaigning.