9 April was held a meeting of the Central Election Commission, by the results of which was taken a decision on single-mandate election districts in Autonomous Republic of Crimea, oblasts, cities Kyiv and Sevastopol.
According to the Law “On Elections of the People’s Deputies of Ukraine”, the CEC shall determine the number of electoral districts in every oblast, ARC,cities Kyiv and Sevastopil, not later than 200 days before the election day, that is 10 April, so the meetig was held at the end of term specified by the law.
Presence of mass media and civil organizations on the meeting, in particular OPORA, diplomatic missions of Sweden and the USA, shows that the public is interested in the election process.
The redistricting was made by the Central Electilon Commission on the basis of State Voter Register, which includes 36,253,147 people. The approximate average number of voters in single-mandate election district is 161,125 people. This number is determined through dividing the number of voters by the number of single-mandate districts – 225.
According to the CEC resolution, in Crimea were created 10 single-mandate districts, in Vinnutsia oblast – 8, Volyn oblast – 5, Dnipropetrovsk oblast – 17, Donetsk oblast – 21, Zhytomyr oblast – 6, Zakarpattia oblast - 6, Zaporizhia oblast – 9, Ivano-Frankivsk oblast - 7, Kyiv oblast – 9, Kirovohrad oblast – 5, Luhansk oblast – 11, Lviv oblast – 12, Mykolaiv oblast – 6, Odesа oblast – 11, Poltavа oblast – 8, Rivne oblast – 5, Sumy oblast - 6, Ternopil oblast – 5, Kharkiv oblast – 14, Kherson oblast – 5, Khmelnytsk oblast – 7, Cherkasy oblast – 7, Chernivtsi oblast – 4, Chernihivskii oblast – 6.
In Kyiv will be created 13 single-mandate districts, in Sevastopil – 2.
There appeared a discussion between members of the Commission concerning the inclusion of a referecne on the Decision of the Constitutional Court of 4 April to the text of its resolution. In particular, Oleksandr Shelestov was against. Andrii Mahera, the Deputy head of the CEC, indicated, that a reference on the decision of the Constitutoional Court is necessary, because it influenced determining the number of districts, particularly in Kiev. “If there was no decision of the Constitutional Court, in Kyiv would be 13 election districts, in Cherkasy oblast - 6, in Poltava not 7 but 8, in Crimea – 9 instead of 10,” - explained his position the Head of the CEC Volodymyr Shapoval. However, the majority was against the inclusion of the reference on the decision of the Constoitutional Court to the resolution.
A number of electoral districts in every region does not go beyond the legally established deviation (12%). The issue of electoral district boundaries is still open. The decision concerning it shall be taken not later than 30 April. The issue of overseas electoral districts wasn’t considered. According to the law, the CEC shall secure creation of regular, overseas and special electoral districts until 20 April.