Results on Established District Election Commissions at the 2019 Presidential Elections: No Record Hitting But With Procedural Compliance

The process of creating district election commissions is complete. Their key functions include the establishment of polling station commissions and determination of vote returns within the territorial constituencies. During the presidential election, there is a three-level hierarchy of election commissions, whereas the Central Election Commission is the highest level commission as to DECs and PSCs. The district election commission is a commission of the higher level as to all polling station commissions within the respective district. That is why the creation of the DECs is one of the most important stages in the election process.

In the time allotted by the Law, the Central Election Commission established 199 district election commissions in 24 regions (oblasts) of Ukraine and in the city of Kyiv (by the Resolution No.331 of February, 18, 2019). With regard to the fact of temporary occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, 26 district election commissions have not been established (12 DECs – in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and in Sevastopol, 9 DECs – in Donetsk oblast, 5 DECs – in Luhansk oblast). The objective cause is in the lack of due conditions within these territories for free expression of vote of citizens and for providing for their security.

The Law required from the CEC to establish district election commissions with at least 12 members, however, there is no upper limit set by the law for the number of DEC members. Each of the 44 officially registered candidates was entitled to suggest one person for the membership in each district election commission. Due to the unprecedented high number of the registered candidates, the risk of incompleteness of the DECs was low. 17 Presidential candidates submitted their nominees to all the 199 of DECs, 15 candidates submitted their suggested members almost to all DEC. Therefore, 2/3 of Presidential candidates made the most use of the option to delegate their nominees for the DEC membership. Three Presidential candidates (Serhiy Kryvonos, Inna Bohoslovska, Oleksandr Vashchenko) delegated their representatives to the membership of almost half of the established DECs. Arkadiy Kornatskyi has not submitted any suggested members to the DEC. Three candidates, Hennadiy Balashov, Dmytro Dobrodomov, and Dmytro Hnap, have no delegated members in under 10% of DECs.

Each and every region of Ukraine received the DEC membership from 33 Presidential candidates. Roman Bezsmertnyi failed to submit any delegates to the DECs only in Ivano-Frankivsk and Odesa oblasts, while Ihor Smeshko has not submitted any candidates in Kirovograd and Kherson oblasts. In four regions, the DECs do not have any delegates from Serhiy Kryvonos, 7 regions do not have any from Yevhen Murayev and Inna Bohoslovska. The geography of representation in the DEC membership from all other candidates is less broad.   

The least popular regions among the candidates are Transcarpathia, Kirovograd, and Rivne oblasts. Each of these regions has not received DEC members from 8 Presidential candidates. There is an opposite situation in the DECs of Kharkiv oblast where only two candidates failed to delegate their representatives for membership – Dmytro Dobrodomov and Arkadiy Kornatskyi.   

Parallel to the establishment of the membership of district election commissions, the CEC allocated all categories of managerial positions (head, deputy head, secretary of election commission). Almost all candidates received from 7% to 9% of managerial positions against the total number of candidates they delegated to the DEC composition. Hennadiy Balashov received 11% of managerial positions in the DEC membership, which can be explained by a small total number of delegates he submitted (19 persons only, two of which were given the managerial positions). In total, the CEC complied with the principle of proportionate distribution, and allocated the managerial positions between the candidate submitting persons depending on the total number of persons suggested by each candidate. Similarly, when establishing the district election commissions, the CEC complied with the requirement to have the approximate equality in territorial distribution of positions allocated to delegates from each submitting person.

In total, the number of DEC members established as of February, 18, 2019, is 7,355 persons, which is not record-hitting for the presidential elections. The record year was 2004 when all the 225 DECs (TECs according to the past classification) established at the Presidential election, amounted to 9,604 persons. Pursuant to the legal regulations valid at the time, each candidate was entitled to submit the maximum of 2 delegates to the DEC membership.

Average (median) mean of the number of members on the lists of DECs established on February, 18, is 37 persons. The DECs with the highest numbers have 41 persons (No.174 and No.176 in Kharkiv oblast), the smallest number is 29 persons – in the DEC No.105 (Luhansk oblast). At the 2014 Presidential election, the average numerical composition of DECs was significantly higher, and was 43 persons.

65% of DEC members had previous work experience in election commissions. Over the recent electoral cycles, there has been a slight decrease in the share of persons with previous membership experience in election commissions. At the 2010 Presidential elections, 78% of members had previous membership experience in election commissions, in 2014 – 72%.  

As to gender composition of the DECs, it is well-balanced – 55% female members, and 45% of male members. The same pertains to the managerial composition of DECs where the distribution is 58% of women vs 42% of men. The highest number of women in the DECs was submitted from the Presidential candidate Yuliya Lytvynenko (69% women). The smallest numbers of women in the DECs were submitted by Ihor Smeshko and Oleksandr Danyliuk (with no account for Dmytro Hnap and Hennadiy Balashov who generally submitted few delegates). There are some regional differences, too. Women prevail in the composition of DECs in Rivne, Kherson, and Volyn oblasts (62% in each); the lowest numbers are found in Transcarpathia oblast (40%).

It can be anticipated that the staff of DECs established on February, 18, 2019, will be largely modified. During the 2014 Presidential election, in the period from the moment of establishing DECs until the election day, the powers of almost half of the members of district election commissions (almost 51%) were terminated. Of them, there were 35% of DEC members eventually substituted by the submitting persons, while others fully terminated their functions of the DEC members (on the grounds of personal requests to withdraw from their positions, or due to systematic neglect of duties). In addition to substitutions, the numerical composition of DECs may undergo changes in case the CEC cancels the candidate’s registration, such as on the grounds of his/her request. In this case, the powers of all members of election commissions submitted by the candidate will be terminated. It will also result in redistribution of managerial positions in favour of other candidates.