Preliminary report on Kharkiv region by-elections
On March 15, 2020, voting took place at the interim elections of the people’s deputy of Ukraine in constituency 179. Civil Network OPORA conducted an independent non-party monitoring of all stages of the electoral process, including the election day, and the vote count. Before the election day, OPORA noted a competitive nature of the election […]
Kharkiv region by-elections: OPORA records some violations but generally campaign meets basic democratic standards
A positive factor is the lack of confirmed facts of voter bribery or other forms of material incentives for citizens. However, these interim elections have illustrated yet another time the need to enhance the mechanisms of transparency and accountability of electoral finance. In fact, only 26 out of 40 registered candidates opened the accounts of […]
New ‘new’ Election Code – which system will be used in future Ukrainian elections?
Peculiarities of electoral system for parliamentary elections The Election Code suggests to use an open-list proportional representation system for organization of parliamentary elections in Ukraine. Voters will be able to vote for a party and, additionally, for a certain candidate in regional list of this party. Only parties that overcome the 5% national threshold will […]
OPORA Statement on Adopting Electoral Code Upon its Second Review
Civil Network OPORA hereby welcomes the efforts of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to build a dialogue and reach a compromise on the Electoral Code. Political legitimacy of the law is an important element of building public trust to the institute of elections. Second review of the Electoral Code does formally complete a lengthy process for […]
Electoral Reform in Ukraine #15
The parliamentary vote on the draft Electoral Code planned for this week has been postponed. Earlier, EPDE members Civic Network OPORA and the Committee of Voters of Ukraine raised serious concerns about some provisions of the draft and pointed to a number of shortcomings resulting from last minute amendments to the draft. This policy alert […]
EPDE Policy Alert – Electoral Reform in Ukraine #15
Photo: OPORA EPDE welcomes that the profile committee of Ukraine’s Parliament yesterday held an additional meeting to discuss a set of problematic provisions in the draft Electoral Code. The parliamentary vote on the draft planned for this week has been postponed. Earlier, EPDE members Civic Network OPORA and the Committee of Voters of Ukraine […]
Statement ahead of Parliament’s consideration of changes to Electoral Code
The Ukrainian Parliament is expected to consider proposals of changes to the Electoral Code made by the President of Ukraine this week, 3-6 December. Civil Network OPORA calls on parliamentarians to make use of procedural possibilities to fine-tune the text of the document. In particular, the parliamentary committee is recommended to hold another meeting before […]
Electoral Reform in Ukraine #14
On 13 September 2019, the Ukrainian Parliament, following a request from President Zelensky, dismissed all acting commissioners of the Central Election Commission. The decision was taken with a vast majority of 341 votes. Due to the lack of objective grounds, the dissolution of Ukraine’s key electoral management body is assessed as politically motivated and has […]
EPDE Policy Alert – Electoral Reform in Ukraine #14
Photo: OPORA On 13 September 2019, the Ukrainian Parliament, following a request from President Zelensky, dismissed all acting commissioners of the Central Election Commission. The decision was taken with a vast majority of 341 votes. Due to the lack of objective grounds, the dissolution of Ukraine’s key electoral management body is assessed as politically […]
Findings and conclusions: Parliamentary elections in Ukraine
Image source: Civil Network Opora During the European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE)’s round table discussion on the conduct and the findings of the Parliamentary elections in Ukraine, many participants spoke of these elections being a watershed moment in Ukrainian history. This was an election of ‘firsts’ since this was the first summer election […]