On 17 December 2020, mass media have started to publish information about the death of Kharkiv Mayor Hennadii Kernes. Thus, different collegial bodies must act in line with Ukrainian laws, i.e., identify the fact of death, terminate the mayor's authority, and call an early election. OPORA publishes a legal comment on the exhaustive list of actions that should lead to a new mayor's election.

After the 2015 regular local elections in Ukraine, OPORA conducted its investigation. The investigation revealed numerous cases when the incorrect distribution of seats or specific manipulations with the protocols influenced the number of distributed mandates in councils. Thus, OPORA had to visit archives throughout Ukraine to get copies of the original protocols. Having digitized and verified them, we noticed many breaches in the distribution of mandates.

On 6 December 2020, the second round of mayoral election took place in Kryvyi Rih. Kostiantyn Pavlov (Opposition Platform - For Life) competed with Dmytro Shevchyk (Servant of the People). According to the 25 October vote results, these candidates took the second and third places, respectively, while the candidate with the largest number of votes, Yurii Vilkul (The Vilkul Bloc "Ukrainian Perspective"), refused to run further.

The final hours of the second round at polling stations in Kryvyi Rih were held in a calm atmosphere, with all electoral subjects generally sticking to legal procedures. All voters had the opportunity to vote freely, and the quarantine restrictions have not critically affect voters' ability to exercise active suffrage at polling stations. However, the complicated epidemic situation has surely had an impact on voters deciding to participate in the election or not. According to OPORA, voter tur...

On 29 November 2020, the second round of mayoral election was held in Chernivtsi. The vote took place at 115 polling stations, with approximately 185.5 thousand voters included in voter lists. Candidate Roman Klichuk (The Only Alternative party cell) competed with Vitalii Mykhailishyn (The Mykhailishyn Team party cell). OPORA has realized long-term and short-term observation of the second round of  mayoral election in Chernivtsi. On the election day, OPORA deployed official observers to 60...

Civil Network OPORA has analyzed 41,746 persons who were elected as members of local councils or community heads. It is worth noting that website of the CEC lacks information about almost 2000 elected councilors. This could influence the statistical data completeness and accuracy of this report.

22 November second round was accompanied by usual for Ukraine violations of electoral legislation, some of which did not have a significant impact on the overall assessment of the vote. However, an increased number of incidents involving taking pictures of ballots is a serious concern and requires investigation into possible bribery schemes. The integrated voter turnout in 11 cities was 29.23% (margin of error - 1.3%). This information was presented by experts of Civil Network OPORA on 23 Nov...

On 22 November, runoff mayoral elections took place in Berdiansk, Zaporizhia Oblas; Dnipro; Drohobych, Lviv Oblast; Lviv; Mykolaiv; Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast; Poltava; Rivne; Slovyansk, Donetsk Oblast; Uzhhorod; and Cherkasy. OPORA observers conducted long-term and short-term observations of the elections focusing on assessment of the quality of election procedures and the level of democaracy and competitiveness of the electoral process.

From 4 PM to 8 PM, OPORA's observers continued to observe the second round and assess the adherence to legal procedures by all electoral subjects.