Ukrainian local elections - improvement of law on local elections needed

On October 29, the first elections took place in 201 Ukrainian newly founded territorial communities. The relatively high participation of voters (48.2%) is one reason why there were lines of people still waiting to vote when polling stations closed.

According to the preliminary assessment of the CVU, in majority of communities, the observed procedural shortcomings did not affect the results. OPORA's observers noticed that the scale of violations has decreased in comparison to the previous elections, however, unprecedented incidents of criminal interference in the election process such as the attack on the election commission members in Dnipropetrovsk oblast, overshadowed the overall conduct of the voting day. Both organization stated that the elections once more demonstrated the necessity of improving the law on local elections.