On 23 December 2018, the first local elections of village, settlement and city heads and councilors in 125 united territorial communities. Besides that, by-elections to village and settlement councils in 26 communities were also appointed for this date.
The Central Election Commission took the corresponding decisions on 12 October meeting with the support of 16 members.
CEC member Andrii Yevstihnieiev has stated before the voting that the legitimacy of election appointment in seven communities is now challenged in courts, and suggested to exclude them from the list of UTCs, submitted for the voting. However, Head of the CEC Tetiana Slipachuk stated that the current procedure of the election appointment says the election must not be appointed if there is the corresponding court ruling, but not if the case is being under consideration in court. Thus, CEC members didn't support the suggestion of Yevstihnieiev.
Thus, the Central Election Commission appointed elections in 22 oblasts of Ukraine except for Kharkiv and Zakarpattia oblasts (Vinnytsia oblast – 3, Volyn oblast – 9 ; Dnipropetrovsk oblast – 1; Donetsk oblast – 1; Zhytomyr oblast – 7; Zaporizhia oblast – 8; Ivano-Frankivsk oblast – 4; Kyiv oblast – 4; Kirovohrad oblast – 4; Luhansk oblast – 8; Lviv oblast – 5; Mykolaiv oblast – 12; Odesa oblast – 3; Poltava oblast – 3; Rivne oblast – 3; Sumy oblast – 4; Ternopil oblast – 5; Kherson oblast – 2; Khmelnytsk oblast – 3; Cherkasy oblast – 27; Chernivtsi oblast – 4; Chernihiv oblast – 5).
By-elections will be held in 12 oblasts: Vinnytsia, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kirovohrad, Sumy, Ternopil, Kharkiv, Chernivtsi, and Chernihiv oblasts.
The election process starts on 3 November 2018.
Besides that, CEC removed the second paragraph from it's resolution of 9 August concerning the appeal to VRU Committee on Judicial Policy and Justice, according to which appeals from oblast state administrations were to be considered after explanations from the Committee.
We remind that the Central Election Commission applied to the VRU Committee on Judicial Policy and Justice on 9 August asking to provide explanations concerning current legislative regulation of organization of national and local referendums in Ukraine, a possibility to legally appoint the first and additional local elections by the Central Election Commission without a local referendum concerning voluntary uniting of territorial communities or joining an existing community, with consideration of Article 6 (2) of the Law of Ukraine on National and Local Referendums, and amendment of the corresponding regulations to remove any legal collisions and inconsistencies.