During the Local Elections in Ukraine held on October 25 and November 15, 2015 20 EPDE experts and observers analyzed key issues of the election process. The project was founded by the European Union, the German Association for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the Polish-German Cooperation Foundation. Additionally, 15 EPDE short-term observers from Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Germany, Moldova, Norway, Poland and Russia monitored the election day proceedings with the support of the civic observers from the Civic Network Opora and the Committee of Voters of Ukraine.

EPDE carried out long-term observation of the November 1, 2015, Parliamentary Elections in Azerbaijan with support of more than 50 local long-term observers (LTOs) and local civil society activists in more than 80 election constituencies around the country. EPDE notes with regret that the November 1, 2015, Parliamentary Elections were carried out amidst numerous incidents of political imprisonment and gross violations of freedoms to assembly, association, and expression.

On September 13, 2015, more than ten thousand elections took place in Russia, including the elections of 21 governors, 11 deputies of regional parliaments, and elections of representative bodies of 25 regional capitals. The 2015 local elections are the last full-scale dress rehearsal of the Russian electoral system—in preparing, organizing, and conducting an Election Day—before the upcoming 2016 national elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

In the process of registration, candidates and parties must pass a “signature filter,” i.e. they must collect a certain number of signatures to qualify for registration. Refusals to register a candidate or party occur for other reasons as well, and these can impact even candidates and parties exempt from signature collection. Election participants often find their nomination and registration obstructed by election commissions organizing the elections as well as by local administrations. Pubic administrative resources are used massively and widely at the pre-election campaign stage. 

Administrative penalties that may be levied on members of election commissions are relatively minor in comparison to the severity of their transgressions. Often, holding commission members administratively responsible is indicative of efforts to conceal more serious violations of electoral laws, such as falsification of electoral documents and ballot rigging.