Documents

Opora issued their first interim report of the pre-election campaign period for the local elections. Officially, election campaigning began 05 September, however, political parties, their local organizations, and potential candidates de facto already launched their active campaigning in August. This stage of early campaigning is unregulated by any electoral legal framework and there are no controls over campaign spending. The uncontrolled spending on political ads on social media is also a concern highlighted in the report available on OPORA's website here.

COVID-19 spread rapidly across the world in early 2020, with most governments instituting far-reaching pandemic mitigation measures, including nationwide lockdowns. This dossier compares the lockdown regimes and extraordinary measures taken in response to COVID-19 and how these have impacted election processes in the Eastern Partnership countries and the Russian Federation.

This comparative analysis by Tatyana Hilscher-Bogussevich of conditions for citizen election observers in the Eastern Neighborhood has found that Russia ranks the worst since there are no legal provisions allowing for civil society to be directly accredited as election observers. There is a similarly restrictive environment in Azerbaijan and Belarus. Other countries of the region rank better and generally facilitate citizen observation, however issues still remain. This study is a first in a series based on the newly launched Catalogue of Recommendations on Electoral Reform.

On July 11, 2019, ten days before the snap parliamentary election on July 21, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted an Electoral Code which introduces a proportional electoral system with open regional party lists for parliamentary elections and harmonizes Ukraine’s electoral legal framework. However, even if signed by the President, the Electoral Code would enter legal force only in December 2023.

The 2019 Ukrainian presidential elections once again proved, for the sixth time in a row, that Ukrainian democracy is solid enough to allow a peaceful transfer of power. Outgoing President Petro Poroshenko accepted his defeat and cleared the way for his successor Volodymyr Zelensky. What marked the presidential elections in Ukraine in 2019? What were their weak points and what are the challenges and tasks which the Ukrainian society and its international partners face in order to improve the electoral processes for the upcoming parliamentary elections? (in German)

The Civil Network OPORA found that the election took place in competitive environment and in compliance with basic standards of genuine elections, whereas cases of breaking national law failed to present any constraints for citizens to exercise their right to vote and be elected.