The Central Election Commission decided not to register 5 individuals. Three self-nominated candidates were rejected due to the non-conformity of submitted documents and the absence of supporting documentation for the payment of a full amount of monetary pledge. Petro Symonenko was denied registration because his party is subject to decommunisation law. Oleksandr Soloviov was denied registration because of questionable statements in election program. The CEC took such decision on 2 February m...

On 11 February 2019, some mass media have disseminated incorrect information referencing to materials of OPORA's observation campaign in Zakarpattia oblast concerning “voter bribery” in Uzhgorod in a form of a free concert of the Studio “Kvartal 95. Thus, mass media have wrongly interpreted a comment from regional representative of OPORA concerning peculiarities of candidate's campaigning in legal framework.

In December 2018, OPORA continued monitoring pre-electoral situation in Ukrainian regions and analyzing early campaigning efforts of potential candidates and related political parties and organizations. Election observation of the Civil Network OPORA is a network activity, aimed at impartial assessment of the preparation and conduct of an election process. Observation goal is to identify key problems in the election process, create an evidence base and prevent violations through civic oversig...

The Central Election Commission has changed the list of regular overseas polling stations, created in April 2012. Thus, it has dissolved 5 polling stations in Russian Federation and made redistricting in Georgia Kazakhstan and Finland.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine allocated 3 billion UAH for the development of territories this year. However, they were allocated without proper planning, justified priorities and precise assessment criteria for the projects, but are definitely in line with campaigning purposes. Thus, in October 2018, civic observers have detected 748 incidents when infrastructural projects and social and economic events seemed to be used for early indirect campaigning purposes in support of MPs of Ukrai...

A court in Odesa oblast has convicted a woman involved in voter bribery. Kiliia Raion Court has issued a guilty verdict against a citizen of Kiliia for a repeated voter bribery and convicted her to 5 years and 6 months in prison, and deprived her of the right to be involved in any activities related to an election process.

The topics of public discussion “How to guarantee a stable election process and voting rights in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts”, held on 30 November in Kyiv, were the following: determination of clear criteria for impossibility of holding an election, the lack of information campaign concerning a change of voting location without changing of an election address, and the need to harmonize electoral legislation.

The Central Election Commission recommended territorial election commissions, which administer local elections in Vinnytsia, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson and Chernihiv oblasts to guarantee a mandatory requirement of the Law of Ukraine on Legal Regime under Martial Law and stop organization and conduct of the first, additional and by-elections.

The Central Election Commission drew attention of electoral subjects in 10 oblasts, where the President imposed martial law, that the election process is prohibited according to the Law on Legal Regime under Martial Law.

In November, potential candidates for the President of Ukraine have been active in their public activities accompanied by various forms of campaigning in 18 of 25 regions of Ukraine. This information was shared on 29 November press-conference by Head of the Board of Civil Network OPORA Olha Aivazovska and OPORA's analysts Oleksandr Kliuzhev and Oleksandr Neberykut.

Despite there is too little time to complete a comprehensive electoral reform and change the rules of play before a number of election campaigns, experts forecast the victory to pro-European political parties in Ukraine. This was discussed on a yearly conference “Kyiv Dialog” in Berlin on October 16.

It is an important and not so easy task for a state to guarantee political impartiality of public officials