On November, 1, 2018, the Central Election Commission adopted a decision on excluding the two amalgamated hromadas from the Resolution No 156 “On the First Election of the Deputies of Village, Township, and City Councils of Amalgamated Hromadas and the Respective Village, Township, and City Heads on December, 23, 2018” and the two hromadas from the Resolution dated October, 12, 2018, No 157 “On Additional Election of the Deputies of Village and Township Councils on December, 23, 2018.”

Imagine the elections with over 90% turnout. And everyone is humble, fearing the punishment. And everyone votes for the same candidate or party. It's not a dystopian fiction. It's how the voting process happens in Ukrainian prisons.

With the election day in 201 united territorial communities coming closer, the candidates became more active in their election campaigns. In particular, there are more incidents of pre-electoral charity, which may be classified as indirect bribery. 

The first local elections in 202 united territorial communities will be held on 29 October 2017. The election process has officially started on 9 September in all Ukrainian oblasts without exception.  Dnipropetrovsk and Volyn oblasts have the largest number of united communities participating in the election – 19 communities each. Zakarpattia and Mykolaiv oblasts, on the contrary, have only one community each.

The failing results of the voting in the Parliament regarding three bils about elections of people’s deputies bring up to date the need to initiate proper inclusive dialogue among all concerned parties. The imitation of the discussion in the Parliament can’t lead to any proper decision, and regarding the introduction of proportional system with open lists on the electionof people’s deputies of Ukraine as well. Surveys made in different years and public opinion support system changes in electi...

The election process currently corresponds to the fundamental law requirements, is enough competitive, and free from violations or factors, which may cast doubt on election administration or the voting process. However, the legal uncertainty of the certain electoral procedures, caused by poor quality of the current Law of Ukraine on Local Elections, is destabilizing the electoral process. 

OPORA supports the strengthening of transparency and accountability of both the power and non-governmental organizations.  However, adoption and implementation of the current draftlaws  №№ 6674, 6675 will lead to negative consequences in the field of development of civil society in Ukraine. In particular, it comes about discrimination of some categories of associations of citizens, bureaucracy of  interaction process between NGOs and regulatory authorities, weakening of an oppo...

The first local elections in the united territorial communities, scheduled for December 11, 2016, were held in compliance with Ukrainian laws and international standards for elections, while the election campaigns of candidates for the most part adhered to the principle of competitiveness. According to observers, there were no pre-planned or systematic violations recorded in the majority of territorial communities, although the election process in some of these communities didn’t fully comply...

Today, legal grounds are in place for a legitimate rotation of CEC membership by dismissing the 12 current members and appointing 11 new members of the Commission.

According to the data gathered by OPORA's observers, deployed to polling stations selected by a representative sampling, the nationwide voter turnout as of 4:00 PM of November 15 is 34% (margin of error ±1.1%). It should be mentioned that the turnout was higher in 12.6% on 25 October – 46,6% (margin of error ±1.1%).

14 of 29 cities where the second round of mayoral election is to be held have a high probability of conflicts during the voting and vote count process as well as use-of-force confrontations and appeals against election results. At the same time, government bodies and election commissions have secured fairly good conditions for the second round of voting on 15 November 2015. Civil Network OPORA calls on mayoral candidates to refrain from putting election commission members under the pressure a...