Free elections with obstacles - the 2019 Ukrainian presidential elections

By Stefanie Schiffer (European Exchange, Berlin)

The 2019 Ukrainian presidential elections once again proved, for the sixth time in a row, that Ukrainian democracy is solid enough to allow a peaceful transfer of power. Outgoing President Petro Poroshenko accepted his defeat and cleared the way for his successor Volodymyr Zelensky.

A look at the two major post-Soviet neighbors shows that such a peaceful change of power is not a matter of fact elsewhere: In Belarus and the Russian Federation presidents Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Vladimir Putin since 1994 and 2000 have succeeded in preventing the transfer of power legitimized by elections.

What marked the presidential elections in Ukraine in 2019? What were their weak points and what are the challenges and tasks which the Ukrainian society and its international partners face in order to improve the electoral processes for the upcoming parliamentary elections?

Find answers to these questions in "Ukraine-Analysen", Issue 217 (in German).