Foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) with politics and elections: signs, examples, and implications for Ukraine

On 3 September, Civil Network OPORA held its first international online workshop, “Civil Society and the Accuracy of Voter Registers: International Exchange of Experience and Joint Recommendations.” Civil society representatives from Ukraine, Kenya, Serbia, Moldova, Armenia, and Georgia discussed the main causes of inaccuracies in voter registers, the risks they pose to voters’ rights and electoral integrity, mechanisms for verifying and updating voter data, and opportunities to strengthen cooperation between election management bodies and civil society.

The European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE) and Civil Network OPORA are pleased to invite you to the webinar “Ukraine’s Post-War Elections Challenge: Ensuring a Credible, Secure, and Inclusive Process” on 9 September at 14:30 CET.

This report is based on an analytical study of migration patterns in Ukraine following the outbreak of the full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022. It is based on an analysis of aggregated, anonymised data on the movements of Vodafone mobile subscribers, information from the State Voter Register, and the OPORA Civil Network’s own calculations.

The study demonstrates the significant impact of the war on migration patterns and highlights citizens’ demand for the protection of their voting rights. It is critical to be prepared for the first post-war elections by comprehensively updating the State Voter Register, and by creating appropriate and non-discriminatory conditions for the exercise of the active voting rights of citizens residing outside their place of registration, both in the country, and abroad.

The State Voter Register is often perceived as a purely technical database necessary for organising elections. In reality, however, it is an institutional reflection of the demographic state of society, its mobility, and the state’s ability to interact with its citizens. Any changes in the structure of the population — internal and external migration, the consequences of war, socio-economic transformations — are reflected in the Register in one way or another.

Representatives of the government and the civic sector state that the response to these risks must begin now. During the OPORA forum on March 23, they outlined the necessary steps, ranging from ensuring voting accessibility to regulating the information space and countering foreign interference. Experts discussed these issues during the public panel: “Political rights must be protected, and all categories of citizens must receive equal mechanisms for realizing the principles and standards of free elections. How to avoid politicizing the human rights agenda in the first post-war elections.”

There will be enough votes in Parliament for the law on the first post-war elections in Ukraine once all seven working subgroups reach a consensus on a range of issues: residency requirement, the article defining the right to run for office, voting for Ukrainians abroad, and others. This opinion was expressed by Olena Shuliak, MP and Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development, and Urban Planning, during the panel discussion “System Resilience and the Resilience System for Organizing Protected and Fair Elections” at the OPORA’s forum “Challenges of Electoral Democracy Caused by the Great War” on March 23.

How to ensure that servicemen and servicewomen can fully exercise their right to vote and be elected, as well as how to protect the electoral process from Russian interference—these were the topics discussed during a public debate at the forum “Key Challenges of Electoral Democracy Caused by the Great War,” held by the Civil Network OPORA on March 23 in Kyiv.

Civil Network OPORA held a forum titled “Key Challenges of Electoral Democracy after the Great War” on March 23. The opening remarks were delivered by Andrew Ockenden, Development Director and Head of the Programmes Team at the UK Government at the British Embassy in Ukraine; Gediminas Navickas, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine; and Oleksandr Korniienko, First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.