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Legitimacy of 2015 local elections depends on correction of deficiencies in the legislation

The next local elections will be accompanied by violations, if a new wording of the Law on the Elections of Deputies to the Verkhovna Rada of Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Deputies of Local Councils, Village, Town and City Heads is not adopted. Such conclusion was made by experts and MPs during the roundtable titled "Improvement of the Law on Local Elections. Problems and Directions", which was held on July 1, an organized by the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, Civil Network OPORA, and Mission of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) to Ukraine.

After 2010 local elections, observers harshly criticized the Law on the Elections of Deputies to the Verkhovna Rada of Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Deputies of Local Councils, Village, Town and City Heads, which caused a number of problems in organization and conduct of the elections. Most of its regulations are contradictory to international standards and create opportunities for abuses at almost all stages of the election process. David Anis, Director of the IFES in Ukraine have stated that despite the President created the Working group on  improving electoral legislation in 2010, the Law remained unchanged.

Head of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine Oleksandr Chernenko: When comparing all electoral laws, which are effective today in Ukraine, and which were applied during previous elections, the law on local elections is the worst. He harshly criticized the Mixed election system, and stressed that party component of the election shall not predominate. Another problem is that candidates cannot nominate themselves, as long party nomination is often formalistic.

According to Olha Aivazovska, Electoral and Political Programs Coordinator of the Civil Network OPORA, major problems appearing during application of the Law on local elections are the following: activities of election commissions and the principle of TEC formation; registration and canceling of registration of candidates; improper control over the ballot printing process and low level of ballot papers guard; responsibility of the commission members and their executive staff for committed violations. "According to the principle which is still effective, 699 territorial election commissions were created – with 3 representatives from each parliamentary faction, and all the rest – through drawing of lots by parties which are not represented in the Verkhovna Rada. This principle didn't give a chance to create politically balanced TECs – pro-government coalition parties received a chance to form a half of their membership. Besides that, the information about their leadership became another challenge, as long as 1042 positions were taken by representatives of the CPU, the Party of Regions, and the People's Party."

Andrii Mahera, Deputy Head of the Central Election Commission, is convinced that it's impossible to conduct local elections in Kyiv in accordance with the effective law: The Law doesn't provide creation of district commissions in Kyiv city. One city election commission will not be able to cope with more than a thousand of precincts. The same situation is with other cities with more than 1 million residents. Mahera stressed that electoral legislation issues should be solved not in the Ministry of Justice or the Administration of the President, but in the legislative body – the Parliament.

Drawbacks of the Law adopted in 2010 had repeated during the local elections on June 2, observed by OPORA and the CVU. In particular, the observers have reported hindrances to observers' activities, violation of the secrecy of voting, violation of the keeping custody, giving out and count of ballot papers, as well as violation of the vote count procedure, and filling in protocols about the voting results.

Experts agreed that a new law on local elections should be adopted.