The Central Election Commission (CEC) has allowed Civil Network OPORA to have its official observers during the October 25, 2020 local elections. The decision was made by the CEC on Thursday, September 10.
In addition, 11 other organizations received permission to observe: "Leading Legal Initiatives", "The Rule of Law" All-Ukrainian Human Rights Group", " Municipal League of Kyiv","People Salvation of Ukraine", "The Union of Help to the ATO Warriors", "Stop Corruption", "Strategy of Ukraine", "Association of Professional Political Consultants", "Regional Social Change Research Center", "Center of Industrial Ecology". "Election Program Control Center" NGO received permission to have observers on the Poltavska oblast territory.
In August Civil Network OPORA has officially launched a wide-scale observation campaign for the next local and the regular local elections in the territorial communities, scheduled for 25 October 2020. OPORA realizes civic observation to provide impartial assessment of election process and its administration, as well as to prevent electoral violations through an efficient citizen watchdog.
OPORA will inform the public about the course of campaign, assess the political context and how well all the stakeholders follow the legislation, international election standards, rights and freedoms of citizens at each stage of the election process, including pre-election period.
We have deployed 188 long-term observers, who will monitor the campaign in each oblast of Ukraine (except for occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea) and prevent violations on the side of electoral subjects.
More than 2,000 short-term observers will join them on the election day, who will report on the situation at polling stations and territorial election commissions, as well as prevent violations and abuses during the vote count. OPORA will not conduct a parallel tabulation, as long as each community is a separate level in local elections. However, observers will realize a statistically-based observation on the election day, and all qualitative information on practices and violations will be representative for the whole Ukraine.