Following demand for the “new faces” in the 2019 parliamentary elections, the same could be expected from the 2020 local elections. But the predictions did not come true – in many amalgamated territorial communities, “Servant of the People” party failed to replicate prior success: support of the President’s party fell compared to the parliamentary elections (15-20% vs 43% in 2019), and several well-known mayors retained their positions (including the mayors of Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, and Kyiv). Although all of the three main parties have proclaimed themselves the winners, no one actually did score high enough: old regional elites seem to maintain their domination for the next 5 years.
Civil Network “OPORA” notes that during this election campaign fair competition between the candidates was ensured. Observers reported significant violations in the certain polling stations, but the reasons for their occurrence were different, responsibility for them was shared between different actors in the election process, and they were not centrally planned within the country.
And what is behind a low voter turnover? COVID-19, disappointment, shortage of favourable candidates or something else?
To find out more about all of the above issues in the first local elections under the new rules, we invite you to join the discussion with Rebecca Harms, Iryna Shvets, Nazar Boyko and Ivan Nikolenko.
Moderator: Maryna Yaroshevych, expert, Promote Ukraine
Language: English (without translation).
Schedule
- 12:00 – 12:10 Rebecca Harms, NDI international election observation mission to 2020 Ukraine’s local elections member, MEP (2004-2019), “2020 Local Elections: does Ukraine pass a democracy test and with what score?”
- 12:10 – 12:20 Iryna Shvets, International Relations Coordinator, Civil Network “OPORA”, “Local Elections follow-up: first lessons learnt from the E-Day and beyond”.
- 12:20 – 12:30 Nazar Boyko, Head of Monitoring-Analytics Group CIFRA, “Managing Elections under the Covid-19: Case of 2020 Local Elections in Lviv oblast”
- 12:30 – 12:40 Ivan Nikolenko, a candidate for deputy of Kyiv City Council of Solomenskiy District, Golos party, “The candidate’s view on the local election: quotas, violations, ballots”
- 12:40 – 13:00 Q&A, Discussion
When: November 13th, 12PM Kyiv time (11AM Brussels time)
Where: Zoom. You will receive a link with the registration confirmation later. The discussion will be also streamed both on Facebook and YouTube, but to enable your fully-fledged participation, registration is strongly encouraged.
Language: English (without translation).
Please register to take part: forms.gle/gTFFm4DUV4ixFYFN6
Organizers: VoxUkraine, Promote Ukraine
Looking forward to seeing you at the event!
Attention
The authors do not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have no relevant affiliations
