For Ukraine, the year 2019 was one of elections. Presidential elections brought Volodymyr Zelensky to power and parliamentary ones swept his party to an unprecedented majority in the Verkhovna Rada.
Now, Ukrainians are voting again — this time in the 2020 local elections. The polls opened on Oct. 25 at 8 a.m local time and will close at 8 p.m.
While these elections are lower profile than the ones in 2019, they are among the most important the nation has ever held.
Here’s why: The local elections are taking place under new electoral and land codes. And, due to Ukraine’s ongoing decentralization reform, the winners will get more power and control over more tax money than their predecessors.
The results may also deliver a painful blow to Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, which has lost the nearly unconditional public support it enjoyed after the parliamentary elections. Recently, it has experienced a significant drop in its ratings. The party is expected to underperform in all major cities.
Despite that, the competition will be fierce. That’s why all eyes are on Ukraine’s 2020 local elections.
The vote
What’s up for grabs in these elections? Mayorships in cities and villages and positions on city, district and oblast councils across the country.
Additionally, Ukrainians will also elect the members of “hromada” councils. What’s a hromada? It’s a new territorial unit that unifies smaller villages.
Taken together, Ukrainians will vote in more than 3,000 separate races. They will elect 370 city mayors and over 1,000 village and town heads, as well as some 2,000 different councils — in cities, oblasts, villages and hromadas.
Oblast councils will be elected in 22 out of 24 regions — with the notable exception of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, which are partially occupied by Russian-led militants.
Additionally, polling stations are not opening in 18 hromadas lying on the front line due to security concerns.
Elections in Crimea and the Russian-occupied part of Donbas won’t be held on Oct. 25.
There are nearly 27 million registered voters, yet total turnout is expected to be between 10 and 15 million people.
COVID-19 prevention
The local elections are also taking place during an unprecedented global public health catastrophe: the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of new COVID-19 cases in Ukraine has already exceeded the milestone of 7,000 per day and infection numbers and deaths are increasing rapidly.
Only voters wearing masks will be allowed into polling stations. There will be temperature checks at the entrance, but if someone has a fever, they won’t be prevented from voting. They will simply go to an isolated booth and then drop their ballot into a separate ballot box.
COVID-19 patients will also have the opportunity to vote. During the day, members of the election commission in protective gear will visit infected voters who requested this service in advance. The same will happen in hospitals.
Violations
Political campaigning was supposed to stop on the night of Oct. 23 in order to provide voters with a “day of silence” before they head to the polls. However, not every political party has obeyed that rule.
As of midday on Oct. 24, police reported issuing 54 citations for violating the “day of silence.” Overall, law enforcement recorded 181 total violations. Most of the illegal campaigning involved billboards or the distribution of fliers.
Most of the violations took place in Rivne Oblast (39), Kharkiv Oblast (22), and in Lviv and Kyiv Oblasts (13 each). The campaign materials are being removed from billboards at the police’s request. Election watchdog Chesno published a gallery depicting the billboards of violators.
Between Sept. 5 (when campaigning officially began) and Oct. 24, the police issued 1,676 citations for violations of the electoral legislation.
622 of them are criminal cases.
Zoom in
Want to know more about the politicians running for election, the political offices that need to be filled and the issues at play? Check out the Kyiv Post’s local election coverage.
Kyiv: Crowded race in Kyiv as parties run for sake of recognition
Lviv: Lviv mayor Sadovyi runs for fourth term, faces strong opposition
Odesa: Odesa mayor likely to be re-elected, despite corruption scandals
Dnipro: In Dnipro, mayor fights for re-election against Zelensky, Kolomoisky
The Donbas: Suspected of separatism, former officials run for mayor on Donbas frontline
