Would you like to know which candidate made a fast progress at the final stage of election campaign, who managed to get the mayoral position despite receiving fewer votes in the first round compared to a competitor, and who lost support of the voters in between of elections? See answers to these and other questions in an analysis made by the Civil Network OPORA.
OPORA has compared the first and second round results of mayoral election winners running in cities where the second round was held (25 October and 15 November respectively). 2,741 candidates have participated in city mayor election on 25 October in 358 cities of Ukraine. The second round of mayoral election was held in 29 cities of Ukraine on 15 November with 58 candidates participating. The election results of 15 November election were considered valid regardless of the voter turnout.
According to election results, 6 candidates holding the second place in the first round have managed to win the second round: Borys Filatov (Ukrainian Union of Patriots – UKROP) in Dnipropetrovsk, Ruslan Martsinkiv (AUU Svoboda) in Ivano-Frankivsk, Oleksandr Sienkevych (Samopomich Union) in Mykolaiv, Vladyslav Antroshenko (Petro Poroshenko Bloc 'Solidarity') in Chernihiv, Anatolii Bondarenko (AUU Batkivshchyna) in Cherkasy and Hennadii Dykyi (Samopomich Union) in Bila Tserkva.
Some newly-elected mayors had lower level of voters' support in the second round election. Thus, the current Mayor of Lviv Andrii Sadovyi received 313 votes less in the second round, and Serhii Morhunov, Acting Mayor of Vinnytsia, received 1096 votes less in the second round if compared to 25 October election.
However, the following candidates have received three times more support compared to the first round: Oleksandr Sienkevych in Mykolaiv and Anatolii Bondarenko in Cherkasy, nearly two times more support: Hennadii Dykyi in Bila Tserkva and Vladyslav Antroshenko in Chernihiv – Valentyn Kazakov in Sievierodonetsk, Oleksandr Mamai in Poltava, Valentyn Malytskyi in Kremenchuh and Oleksandr Symchyshyn in Khmelnytsk.
We would like to remind that according to the Law on Local Elections, 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 should be scheduled with two candidates who gained the highest number of votes participating. A candidate gaining the highest support is considered elected.
There are 35 cities in Ukraine which have 90 thousand of voters or more. Mayors of Odesa, Ternopil, Kharkiv, Sloviansk, and Lysychansk were elected yet on 25 October. In other words, only 5 mayors in 35 cities having 90 thousand of voters and more were elected in the first round. Thus, 29 cities had to organize the second round of voting.
The second round was held in the following cities: Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Lutsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Dniprodzerzhynsk, Kryvyi Rih, Nikopol, Pavlohrad, Kramatorsk, Zhytomyr, Uzhhorod, Berdiansk, Zaporizhia, Melitopol, Ivano-Frankivsk, Bila Tserkva, Kirovohrad, Sievierodonetsk, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Kremenchuk, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Kherson, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, Chernihiv and Chernivtsi.
It should be mentioned that elections were not held in Mariupol and Krasnoarmiisk on 25 October, and the date for these elections is scheduled for 29 November. On 19 November, the CEC passed a resolution establishing that campaigning shall not be held before the election day. OPORA suggested to change the Explanations and allow the candidates campaign until 12 am of the last Friday before the election day. At the same time, Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeals has ruled that the CEC's paragraph 8 of Explanations on election campaigning in Mariupol and Krasnoarmiisk was unlawful and repealed it on 23 November.
During the second round of mayoral election, official observers of Civil Network OPORA monitored electoral procedures at polling stations chosen by a representative sampling in 29 cities of Ukraine. OPORA has prepared a statement on the course of the second round of mayoral election based on observation 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.
- Information System “Local Elections in Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, and Kharkiv”;
- Information System Second round of mayoral election in Dnipropetrovsk: statistics on the results of parallel vote tabulation conducted by OPORA;
- 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”;
- Social video ad “What election schemers should expect”;
- Social video ad “OPORA: Read, Watch, Study, Inform. 2015 Elections”
- 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)”.