Democracy feast: Ukrainians are voting in local elections today

From 8:00 AM to 20 PM today, 25 October 2015, Ukrainians will be electing members of local self-government bodies, as well as city, village, settlement heads and headmen. There are 132 parties-electoral subjects in this local election campaign. Observers from 83 Ukrainian NGOs and 1554 international observers from 14 countries and 14 international organizations will watch the election process. Civil Network OPORA deploys over 3,000 observers to monitor elections to all Ukrainian regions, and conduct parallel vote tabulation in elections to city councils and of Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa and Kharkiv city mayors. It should be mentioned that OPORA operatively publishes information about violations detected during the election campaign on the Map of Violations “2015 Local Elections” and on its website.

It should be mentioned that preparatory meetings of precinct election commissions are scheduled for 7:15 AM. The voting is to be held from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. We would like to mention that the electoral legislation prohibits inclusion of voters in voter lists on the election day. On the election day, 25 October 2015, election commission can't make any changes in voter lists besides correction of errors and inconsistencies, even by the court ruling.

The voting will be held throughout Ukraine except for the temporarily occupied territory of the AR of Crimea, city of Sevastopol, and some raions in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. “OPORA considers territorial communities of Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Cherkasy, Odesa, Mariupol, and Krasnoarmiisk (Donetsk obl.) and Lysychansk (Luhansk obl.) as problematic. There are serious problems in these regions in regard to securing effective work of election commissions, their political impartiality, risks of administrative resource abuses on the election day and after election precincts are closed. There are also many incidents related to indirect voter bribery.” Besides that, OPORA considers Ternopil and Poltava as potentially problematic cities, due to organizational issues and political factors influencing the production of ballot papers.

Nearly 1,5 million Ukrainian internally displaced persons will not be able to vote in local elections in their new territorial communities. A group of NGOs comprising Civil Network OPORA, Donetsk oblast cell of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, Right for Protection All-Ukrainian Charitable Foundation, Institute for Social and Economic Studies, Vostok SOS and Crimea SOS Citizen Initiatives as well as 9 MPs has developed and initiated the Law #2501а-1 on Amendments to Some Legislative Acts Guaranteeing Voting Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, giving IDPs an opportunity to change their voting address by submitting a personal application for election address change and vote at the factual residence address in nationwide and local elections. However, despite all the measures taken by the public and experts, the VRU Committee on Judicial Policy and Justice failed to consider this bill and to introduce it to the Parliament for consideration.

Central Election Commission gave 83 nationwide, regional, and local Ukrainian NGOs an approval to have official observers in local elections. Nationwide NGO Civil Network OPORA has received such approval on 10 September 2015.

1554 international observers from 14 countries and 14 international organizations will watch 2015 local elections on 25 October, what is 3 times more than in 2010 local elections. In 2010, 490 observers from 11 countries and 14 international organizations watched the election process in Ukraine. The number of OSCE international observers has increased in 171 times (!) (in 2010, only 4 persons form OSCE, 684 persons from the Office for Democratic Institution and Human Rights), which is now the largest officially registered international observation mission. The second largest observation mission is European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), represented by 383 observers. Then, the Committee for Open Democracy (88 registered observers), Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (72 observers) and representatives of the Council of Europe (55).

Despite the new Law on Local Elections adopted on 14 July 2015, elections to local councils are being held under some electoral systems simultaneously.

Elections to oblast, raion, city and raion city councils are held under the proportional representation electoral system in multi-mandate election district. Local party cells submit electoral lists with candidates nominated in the certain election districts within the multi-mandate electoral district. There are 28,589 vacant mandates and 210,015 registered candidates in electoral lists of parties, which are going to be elected to 869 local councils. However, only local cells of political parties could nominate candidates. The candidates can be both party members or unaffiliated.

As for city mayors, there are 2,741 candidates nominated in 358 cities of Ukraine.

Elections of city mayors in cities having 90 thousand of voters and more are being held under absolute majority election system. Thus, a candidate who gains 50% of voter turnout +1 vote wins the election. However, if any candidate doesn't manage to get this percentage, the second round will be scheduled for 15 November 2015 with two candidates who gained the highest number of votes participating. A candidate gaining the highest support is considered elected. Mayoral candidates could be nominated both by local party cells or by candidates themselves.

Elections to village and settlement councils are held under relative majority system in single-member districts, created in the corresponding village, or united village/settlement territorial communities. Thus, a candidate gaining the highest number of votes in the corresponding district is considered elected.

Elections of village/settlement heads and headmen, as well as mayors in cities having less than 90 thousand voters are being held under relative majority system in united single-member districts. A candidate gaining the highest number of votes is considered elected.

Starting from 5 September, Civil Network OPORA conducts a large-scale observation of local elections in Ukraine. Thus, 144 long-term observers were deployed to all Ukrainian regions, and 3000 short-term observers will join them on the election day. OPORA will conduct parallel vote tabulation in elections of Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa and Kharkiv city mayors. October at 11:30 AM in the UNIAN Information Agency (4 Khreshatyk St., Kyiv), OPORA will promulgate preliminary results of election day observation and analyze how the most widespread violations influenced election results.

We would like to remind that OPORA has prepared various unique instruments which will help you to follow the election campaign and make a conscious choice.

• OPORA's Map of Violations “2015 Local Elections”;
• Application “Local Elections” for Android;
• Social video ad “How ballots for 25 October elections look like”;
• Social video ad “Don't vote for election tricksters”;
• Service “Previous party affiliation of candidates: place of nomination and nominating entity in 2010 local elections”;
• Service “Search for a TEC/DEC member: party affiliation and conflicts (1998-2015)”.

It should be mentioned that information about violations reported during the election campaign and on the voting day are published by the OPORA on its Map of Violations “2015 Local Elections”: http://map.oporaua.org/

Besides that, OPORA operatively informs about the course of election day:

On website: http://oporaua.org/ On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cn.opora

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/opora(#вибори2015 #elect_ua @opora)