The fact of scheduling interim elections by the Central Election Commission in constituency 208 with the delayed publication of the decision in national media contains elements of free interpretation of electoral law and contradicts the previous election scheduling practices.

Verkhovna Rada adopted the draft law No. 3485 “On Introducing Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on Improving Electoral Law,” in the first reading. It introduces changes to the Electoral Code. The decision was supported by 292 MPs. The draft law also took into account certain proposals from the Civil Network OPORA.

Electoral process in Ukraine is still associated with considerable breach of law, when political parties and candidates resort to illegal electoral techniques, whereas electoral subjects continue to commit massive fraud, and fail on the generally accepted election standards.

The Verhkovna Rada Committee on the organization of state power, local self-governance, regional development and urban planning recommends to the parliament to adopt the draft law 3485 “On Introducing Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on Improving Electoral Law” that introduces changes to the Electoral Code. The respective decision was adopted by the Committee during the meeting on June, 3.

In May, 65 MPs missed more than 30% of votes in the Parliament. These were 29 MPs from the Servant of the People faction, 10 from the Batkivshchyna, 7 from the Opposition Platform for Life, 6 from the Holos, 5 non-faction MPs, 5 from the European Solidarity, 6 - For the Future, 2 - Dovira.

As there still was the quarantine in May, the Parliament continued working in the format of extraordinary sittings. They can be initiated by the President of Ukraine or a third part of MPs. There were 4 such meetings in May (on 7, 13, 19 and 20 May). Thus, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a number of legislative initiatives in May. In particular, it voted on a law that gives extra guarantees for health care and other employees who are involved in protection of the population against infectious dise...

The Central Election Commission has adopted a new procedure for an election address change, which allows internally displaced persons to vote in local elections at their place of residence. This Central Election Commission took this decision on its May 18 meeting.

Local councils of oblast centers comprise 3,181 members, 2,621 men (82%) and 558 women (18%). When comparing this data with membership of the Verkhovna Rada, we get similar figures. Thus, 80% of MPs in Ukrainian Parliament are men and 20% - women. These are monitoring results from Civil Network OPORA, which covered 52 city and oblast councils as of April 2020.