In December 2018, OPORA continued monitoring pre-electoral situation in Ukrainian regions and analyzing early campaigning efforts of potential candidates and related political parties and organizations. Election observation of the Civil Network OPORA is a network activity, aimed at impartial assessment of the preparation and conduct of an election process. Observation goal is to identify key problems in the election process, create an evidence base and prevent violations through civic oversig...

The Central Election Commission has changed the list of regular overseas polling stations, created in April 2012. Thus, it has dissolved 5 polling stations in Russian Federation and made redistricting in Georgia Kazakhstan and Finland.

In December 2018, observers of the Civil Network OPORA have recorded the increased intensity and scale of the early campaigning coming from prospective candidates for the President of Ukraine who were included into opinion polls or independently declared their intention to run for the coming election.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine allocated 3 billion UAH for the development of territories this year. However, they were allocated without proper planning, justified priorities and precise assessment criteria for the projects, but are definitely in line with campaigning purposes. Thus, in October 2018, civic observers have detected 748 incidents when infrastructural projects and social and economic events seemed to be used for early indirect campaigning purposes in support of MPs of Ukrai...

A court in Odesa oblast has convicted a woman involved in voter bribery. Kiliia Raion Court has issued a guilty verdict against a citizen of Kiliia for a repeated voter bribery and convicted her to 5 years and 6 months in prison, and deprived her of the right to be involved in any activities related to an election process.

In November, OPORA continued the monitoring of the pre-election situation in the regions of Ukraine, and analyzed the course and content of the early campaigning of prospective candidates and the related political parties and organizations. Civil observation of OPORA is a kind of proactive activities of the network intended to produce the unbiased evaluation of the preparation process and the conduct of election.  The goal of the observation is identification of key challenges in the ele...

The topics of public discussion “How to guarantee a stable election process and voting rights in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts”, held on 30 November in Kyiv, were the following: determination of clear criteria for impossibility of holding an election, the lack of information campaign concerning a change of voting location without changing of an election address, and the need to harmonize electoral legislation.

The budget administrative resource, which consists in using budget funds and means in favor of individual parties and candidates, is one of the most dangerous breaches of the electoral process standards. After all, the abuse of such a kind of administrative resource often occurs without any breach of the formal requirements of the law, but it has devastating consequences for the competitiveness of the election.