Second round of mayoral elections was held in 29 cities without significant violations or conflicts and in accordance with the procedures established by the Law. The number of violations committed by election commissions and other electoral subjects during the second round has decreased in comparison to the voting process on 25 October. Despite there were some incidents and events that could be classified as gross violations, OPORA has estimated that violations detected at polling stations couldn't influence final results of the second round election.

Olha AIVAZOVSKA, Electoral and Parliamentary Programs Coordinator at the Civil Network OPORA told about the most typical violations that occurred on the election day: “If compared to the first round, the number of violations detected by OPORA's observers has significantly decreased, particularly attempts to issue ballots without passport verification – from 17.8% to 0.8% in Ukraine. Besides that, we are concerned about incidents related to violation of the voting secrecy, percentage of which has increased from 7.5% to 9.2% in Ukraine if compared to the first round. The incidents when voters take pictures of their ballots are as widespread as they were: at 12.1% of polling stations in Dnipropetrovsk in the first round and 11.7% in the second. Observers didn't notice any pre-planned or systematic violations of electoral legislation.”

Analyst at the Civil Network OPORA Oleksandr Kliuzhev has stated: Violations which occurred the most often on 25 October became rare in the second round, particularly attempts to issue (or receive) ballot papers without passport verification. The percentage of such incidents has decreased from 17.8% to 0.8% in Ukraine. Such tendency could be explained by the fact that such incidents usually occur in villages, and these elections didn't cover rural areas. The expert has emphasized that minor violations which concern violation of the voting procedure were detected at 17% of polling stations in Ukraine (24.5% on 25 October). The number of detected violations has decreased in Dnipropetrovsk from 40% to 21.4% if compared to the first round. Fortunately, OPORA's observers haven't noticed any incidents when the voters were banned from entering polling places.

Despite the voter turnout is lower (34.4% on 15 November and 46.6% on 25 October), introduction of the absolute majority system for election of mayors in big cities having over 90 thousand voters helped the voters to fully access their attitude to two top candidates in their territorial communities, what increases responsibility of all parties for final election results. Lower voter turnout in the second round displays the specifics and intensity of the second round in the certain territorial communities and cannot be interpreted as decreased public legitimacy of the elections or public trust to the institution of elections.

 

According to the results of parallel vote tabulation, conducted by OPORA's observers at 100% of polling stations in Dnipropetrovsk, the results of 15 November mayoral election are the following: Borys Filatov – 53.76% (184,724 votes), Oleksandr Vilkul – 46.24% (158,897 votes).

Civil Network OPORA calls on law enforcement bodies to properly investigate gross violations of the election law (particularly in Kyiv, Bila Tserkva, Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk) which occurred on the election day, and obstructions to legitimate activities of official observers (gross violation concerning the rights of OPORA's observers were reported in Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk).

OPORA's summary is based on the results of long- and short-term observation, criteria and principles of democratic elections established by documents of the Venice Commission, Copenhagen Conference, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Final summary on regular local elections will be published by Civil Network OPORA only after territorial election commissions finish all the procedural activities and official election results are announced.

For comment, please contact:

Olha Aivazovska, 063 617 97 50

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Reference:
Civil Network OPORA conducts observation of local elections in Ukraine on 25 October 2015 and the second round of mayoral elections on 15 November. Civic monitoring conducted by OPORA - is a type of network activity, aimed at impartial assessment of the preparation and conduct of elections, as well as preventing electoral violations through comprehensive civic action. 144 long-term observers were deployed to all Ukrainian regions on 5 September, and over 3000 short-term observers joined them on the election day. 77 long-term observers were deployed to 29 cities of Ukraine on 26 October, and 1000 short-term observers will join them on the election day on 15 November. During the second round of mayoral election on 15 November, Official observers of Civil Network OPORA monitored electoral procedures at polling stations chosen by a representative sampling in 29 cities of Ukraine. In Dnipropetrovsk, OPORA organized the parallel vote tabulation at 100% of polling stations.Follow the latest news on OPORA's website andMap of Violations “2015 Local Elections”. We recommend that every observer, journalist and active citizen downloads application “Local Elections” for Android.