The 2015 local elections in Ukraine have begun. The polling stations opened at 0800 and will close at 2000 on Sunday, October 25.
A total of 33,000 stations will work on that polling day.
This is the day when mayors of 358 cities and towns of regional and district importance will be elected. In 38 cities with the number of voters exceeding 90,000 people, the elections will be held in two rounds if none of the candidates scores over 50% of the votes during the first round.
Mayors of cities, towns and villages, and members of town and village councils will be elected with the use of the simple plurality system.
The elections of members of regional, district, city councils and municipal district councils ‒ all in all 869 local councils ‒ will be held under a proportional system with open lists of candidates from political parties.
According to the election law, the official results of the elections of village, town and city mayors and members of town and village councils should be established by relevant territorial election commissions no later than October 30. The official results of the elections of members of regional, district, city councils and municipal district councils should be established no later than November 4. Five more days are given for publishing the official election returns.
The specific feature of the current local elections is the use of the proportional system with open party tickets for the election of members of regional, district, city councils and municipal district councils.
According to the new procedure, voters cast their ballots both for a candidate in their constituency and for the party that has nominated that candidate. However, all votes shall go to the party.
The seats in the local legislatures will be distributed among the candidates belonging to the political forces that have managed to overcome the 5% election threshold. The seats will be split according to party lists, which were approved by the territorial election commissions, depending on the percentage of the votes each candidate receives in the respective constituency.
However, if a candidate wins in his or her constituency, but their political force fails to overcome the 5% threshold, the candidate won’t get the seat.
The elections of members of town and village councils will be conducted based on the simple plurality system, and candidates can be nominated by political parties or be self-nominees.The elections of village, town and city mayors will be held under the same system. Similarly, candidates for these posts can be nominated by political parties or be self-nominated.
For the first time in the history of the Ukrainian election, the mayors of cities with the number of voters exceeding 90,000 people will be held in two rounds if none of the candidates receives more than 50% of the vote in the first round.
The second round of the elections will be scheduled by a corresponding territorial election commission, and it should take place no later than November 15.
October 25 will also be the first polling day for 150 united territorial communities in Ukraine, recently created under the law of Ukraine on the voluntary merger of territorial communities.
The local elections will not be held in temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, rebel-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as in 91 Ukrainian-controlled populated localities in Donetsk region and 31 Ukrainian-controlled populated localities in Luhansk region that are situated close to the frontline of the Anti-Terrorist Operation zone in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, because it is impossible to guarantee the security and safety of voters and members of the election commissions there. The Central Election Commission made its decision not to hold the local elections there proceeding from reports by the heads of Donetsk and Luhansk Region Military-Civilian Administrations. There will be no election of Donetsk and Luhansk regional councils either.
Internally displaced persons from Russia-occupied Crimea and militant-controlled territory in Donbas will not be able to take part in the 2015 local elections. Experts estimate that their number is nearly 1.4 million people.Conscripts, Ukrainian citizens living abroad, prisoners and those recognized by the court as incapable do not have the right to cast their votes on October 25.
Under the law, the parties having communist and social-nationalist ideology are not allowed to participate in these elections.
These are also the first local elections in Ukraine which will be monitored by a large number of international observers. The Central Election Commission has registered more than 1,500 international monitors. The largest observation missions will be those of OSCE ODIHR (684 members) and ENEMO (383 members).
Ukraine has allocated UAH 1.18 billion in budget funds for the local elections. The funds will be transferred to the local budgets as subsidies from the national budget. Experts estimate that the political parties running for local legislatures have spent another UAH 2 billion on their election campaign.
The term of office of the local councils to be elected remains unclear. Should the Verkhovna Rada pass decentralization-related amendments to the Constitution by the end of the current parliamentary session, the next elections to local self-government agencies will be held in the autumn of 2017.
