Civil Network OPORA - is a non-governmental, non-political and financially independent all-Ukrainian network of activists. In 2014, OPORA conducts a wide observation campaign during snap Presidential election, interim Parliamentary elections (district #83), and special local elections. 175 long-term observers are working in all Ukrainian regions. On the Election Day, the organization will mobilize nearly 3,000 activists to conduct the parallel vote tabulation, based on statistical sample.

The registration of candidates for the President of Ukraine has ended on 4 April 2014. The Central Election Commission has considered 46 packages of documents, submitted by political parties and self-nominated candidates. 23 candidates were registered; the others were rejected due to the nonpayment of the monetary pledge, or non-conformity of submitted documents. OPORA hasn't noticed any violations committed by the СEC when fulfilling its duties during registration of candidates for the President of Ukraine.

Snap Presidential election became quite resonant for political leaders in Ukraine. The bigger number of candidates was registered only in 2004-2006. The number of candidates nominated from parties tend to decrease. In 2014, only 52% (12 persons) are affiliated to parties (in 2004 – 73%, 2010 – 56% from the total number of candidates). The number of self-nominated candidates has increased in comparison to the previous elections: in 2014 – 70% of the total number (16 persons); 2010 – 56%; 2004 – 35%; 1999 – 20%.

Only 5 of 23 candidates for the President of Ukraine have already stood for the president before (Petro Symonenko, Yuliia Tyshchenko, Anatolii Hrytsenko, Oleh Tiahnybok, and Serhii Tihipko). The most experiences candidate is Petro Symonenko, who has already participated in three elections of the President of Ukraine (1999, 2004, and 2010).

For the first time, officials of the highest state government bodies don't participate in the Presidential election. None of the candidates hold positions in the Cabinet of Ministers, central executive bodies, or authorities of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The absence of high state officials in the list of candidates may decrease the level of administrative influence on the election process. Similarly to the previous elections, candidates for the President of Ukraine are usually Members of Parliament (7 of 23 candidates). A number of candidates in these elections are temporarily unemployed due to the rotations in power vertical of the country (6 of 23 candidates).

Only three women are standing for the highest position in the country, and the average age is 50 years. All the candidates, besides Vadym Rabynovych, have received the higher education. The candidates are usually from Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Cherkasy oblasts (5, 3, 3, 2 candidates respectively).

Only three women are standing for the highest position in the country, and the average age is 50 years. All the candidates, besides Vadym Rabynovych, have received the higher education. The candidates are usually from Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kharkiv oblasts (5, 3, 3, candidates respectively).

Background

The fifth President is going to be elected in unique circumstances, which cannot be compared to the previous election campaigns. On 22 February 2014, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has determined that the President of Ukraine V. Yanukovych has unconstitutionally withdrawn himself from his constitutional authority, and doesn't implement his duties.[1] Thus, the Parliament has scheduled the snap elections of the President of Ukraine for 25 May 2014. For the first time, the effective President of Ukraine doesn't participate in the race, what creates new conditions for candidates and voters. The start of current election campaign is accompanied with unprecedented attention of citizens, politicians, the public and world community. The elections will be held on the background of with military and economic aggression of the Russian Federation towards Ukraine. Snap election of the President of Ukraine are supposed to conclude the acute political crisis, caused by criminal activities of the previous Head of the state, dramatic events on the Maidan, and external political problems. These elections are not only a mechanism of forming the highest leadership of the country, but also a way to the settlement of a continuous conflict between the government and the society.

Legal aspect of nomination of candidates

According to the Constitution of Ukraine and the Law of Ukraine on the Election of the President of Ukraine, a citizen of Ukraine who is 35 years old or elder on the election day, has the right to vote, speaks the state language, and have been living in Ukraine for the last ten years, can be nominated for the President of Ukraine. A person is considered to be living in Ukraine if its place of residence is registered in Ukraine according to the Law of Ukraine on Freedom of Movement and Free Choice of Residence in Ukraine. According to the Law, the place of residence – is the territory, where person lives for more than six month a year. Thus, the requirement of age, language and durational residency is applied to candidates for the President of Ukraine. Before the official registration of candidates, experts and the public were actively discussing the possibilities of nomination for the UDAR party leader Vitalii Klychko, as long as he didn't correspond to the duration residency requirement because of his sports career abroad. After Klychko decided not stand for the President of Ukraine, discussion of this issue was removed from the public agenda. In contrast to the Law on Parliamentary elections, the Law of Ukraine on Election of the President of Ukraine doesn't contain a prohibition to nominate citizens who were convicted for an intended crime, if this conviction is not spent or invalidated according to the procedure determined by the law.

The Law of Ukraine on the Election of the President of Ukraine provides that citizens of Ukraine who have the right to vote can be nominated for the President of Ukraine. Citizens may realize this right through political parties or by self-nomination. Nomination of candidates has started on February 27, and finished on Sunday, 30 March 2014.

Political party can nominate only one candidate for President of Ukraine, who is either affiliated to this party, or is unaffiliated. Parties cannot nominate candidates who are affiliated in another party. The Law establishes the following requirements to the nomination of candidates by political parties: 1) candidates shall be nominated during a party congress (meeting, conference) according to its statute; 2) besides personal information, the protocol of the congress shall contain the results of voting for the candidate for President of Ukraine; 3) the party must inform the media about time and place of the congress (conference, meeting). Simultaneously, organizers of the event where candidate for President of Ukraine is to be nominated shall establish the accreditation themselves. Besides that, the Law doesn’t include the regulation on mandatory presence of representative of the CEC on the party congress. If a candidate for President of Ukraine is self-nominated, he/she shall personally submit the corresponding application to the CEC.

Mass media representatives have faced the certain difficulties with access to party congresses, called for the nomination of candidates for President of Ukraine. In particular, the Communist Party of Ukraine has announced only the date of its congress, but not time or place. According to OPORA's observer, neither national mass media representatives nor journalists from Donetsk oblast were present during congress of the CPU. Simultaneously, the Party of Regions has limited journalists' access to the first part of the congress, held on March 30 in Kyiv, where the decision to support Mykhailo Dobkin as a candidate for President of Ukraine.

Such circumstances prove the necessity of strengthening requirements for openness and transparency of party congresses during which candidates for President of Ukraine are nominated.

According to the CEC, there are 46 candidates for President of Ukraine, self-nominated and nominated by the parties. 36 of them are self-nominated candidates, 10 are nominated by political parties.

Registration of candidates

According to the Law of Ukraine on the Election of the President of Ukraine, the Central Election Commission is authorized for the registration of candidates for President of Ukraine. The CEC was receiving the documentation from authorized representatives of political parties and self-nominated candidates for registration of presidential candidates till 30 March 2014. The list of documents, which should be submitted by candidates to the CEC is determined by Articles 48 and 51 of the Law of Ukraine on the Election of the President of Ukraine[2]. In particular, the following documents should be submitted to the CEC: 1) the document certifying that the monetary pledge in amount of 2.5 million UAH was paid; 2) election program in the volume of under 12 thousand printed characters; 3) declarations on assets, income, expenses, and financial obligations for the previous year; 4) questionnaire and autobiography of presidential candidate; 5) other documents, required by the Law.

Having received the full package of documents, the CEC shall take its decision on registration or refusal to register the candidate for President of Ukraine. The Commission shall take this decision not later than on the fifth day after the documents were submitted.

The Central Election Commission can refuse to register a candidate for the following reasons:
1) the nomination procedure for presidential candidates was violated; 2) all necessary documents required for registration were not submitted; 3) the election program of the candidate contains statements, goaled for the liquidation of Ukraine's independence, forcible change of the constitutional order, violation of the sovereignty or the territorial integrity of Ukraine, undermining its safety, illegitimate seizure of the state power, popularization of the war, violence, exasperation of interethnic, racial, religious hostility, encroachment on human rights and freedoms, on health of the population; 4) candidate for President of Ukraine has terminated the of citizenship of Ukraine or has the double citizenship; 5) presidential candidate has left Ukraine to reside permanently abroad; 6) the nominee was recognized to be incapable; 7) there are other circumstances, which deprive the presidential candidate of the right to be elected as the President of Ukraine, according to the Article 103 (2,3) of the Constitution of Ukraine. However, errors and inaccuracies in the documents submitted for the registration may be corrected and cannot be the reason for cancellation of candidate's registration.

OPORA hasn't noticed any violations committed by the СEC when fulfilling its duties during registration of candidates for the President of Ukraine. The Commission has received 46 packages of documents for the registration of candidates. Having considered the documents, the CEC passed a decision on registration of 23 candidates for President of Ukraine. 23 nominees were rejected. The candidates were often rejected because the documents certifying that the monetary pledge was paid were not submitted, the declarations on assets, income, expenses, and financial obligations didn't correspond to the established form, the absence of other documents, required by the legislation. It should be mentioned that a number of candidates have consciously violated the registration procedure. In particular, the certain candidates have submitted documents certifying the monetary pledge in an insufficient amount (25.170 UAH and other amounts). Thus, Civil Network OPORA affirms, that the process of candidate registration was legitimate, unbiased and free of conflicts.

The number of candidates for the President of Ukraine

23 candidates will participate in the snap Presidential elections, scheduled for 25 May 2014. Bigger number of candidates was registered only in 2014 – 26 candidates, and the smallest number of presidential candidates was registered in 1991 and 1994 (5 and 7 persons respectively). The growing number of candidates means that the political moods in the country are not structured, the parties are not efficient enough, and political elites are not consolidated. Some candidates may play the technical function in election campaigns of presidential candidates with the highest ratings. Simultaneously, the large number of candidates increases the expenses from the State Budget of Ukraine, allocated for organization and conduct of the voting.

Table 1 "Number of candidates for the President of Ukraine in 1991, 1994, 1999, 2004, 2010, and 2014"

Participation of political parties in elections of the President of Ukraine

The number of candidates, nominated from parties tends to decrease. While 52% of candidates are affiliated to political parties in 2014, the amount of affiliated candidates in 1999 was 80%. On the contrary, the number of self-nominated candidates has decreased. In 2014, 70 % of candidates are self-nominated, in 1999 – 20 %, 2010 – 56 %. As we can see, a lot of candidates are trying to emphasize their personal civic stand than to associate their names with the parties. The decreased role of political parties in elections of the President of Ukraine will loosen the implied connection between elections of different levels. It is to some extent contrary to the country's direction towards the coalition format of parliamentary-presidential republic. Simultaneously, such tendency can mean that the public doesn't have enough trust in the parties. The situation in the Party of Regions is quite specific. Mykhailo Dobkin, Serhii Tihipko, Oleh Tsariov, and Yurii Boiko had registered as candidates before the Party of Regions called its congress. Nevertheless, the party decided to support only Mykhailo Dobkin.

Table 2 Candidates nominated by parties and self-nominated candidates on Presidential elections

Participation of candidates during previous elections of the President of Ukraine

Only 5 of 23 candidates for the President of Ukraine have already stood for the president before (Petro Symonenko, Yuliia Tyshchenko, Anatolii Hrytsenko, Oleh Tiahnybok, and Serhii Tihipko). The most experiences candidate is Petro Symonenko, who has already participated in three elections of the President of Ukraine (1999, 2004, and 2010). The best result was reached by Symonenko in the second round of 1999 elections, when he was competing against then-President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma (37.8% of votes). However, Petro Symonenko didn't manage to get more than 5% of votes during all of the following elections.

Yuliia Tymoshenko, Serhii Tihipko, Anatolii Hrytsenko and Oleh Tiahnybok participated in 2010 Presidential election. Tymoshenko showed the best election results, but has lost in the second round to Viktor Yanukovych (45.47 %). Serhii Tihipko has received 13.05 % in the first round in 2004, Oleh Tiahnybok - 1.43 %, Anatolii Hrytsonko - 1.2 %. The other candidates didn't participate in 2010 Presidential election.

Table 3 Participation of candidates in 2014 elections of the President of Ukraine

Division of candidates by the age and gender

Most of the candidates (13 persons) belong to the age group of 41-50 years. 7 candidates belong to the group 51-60. The youngest candidate for President of Ukraine if Nataliia Korolevska (39 years). The eldest candidate is Petro Symonenko (62 years).

Only 3 of 23 candidates, registered for snap elections of the President of Ukraine, are female (Yuliia Tymoshenko, Olha Bohomolets, and Nataliia Korolevska). In 2010, the number of women standing for the President of Ukraine was the same (Yuliia Tymoshenko, Inna Bohoslovska, Liudmyla Suprun). In 1999 and 2004, the only female candidate was Nataliia Vitrenko, the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine. During the first and second presidential elections in Ukraine, all the candidates were men.

Table 5 "Gender of candidates for the President of Ukraine in 1991, 1994, 1999, 2004, 2010, and 2014"

Division of candidates according to the main work place

In 2014, officials of the highest state government bodies for the first time don't participate in the Presidential election. None of the candidates hold positions in the Cabinet of Ministers, central executive bodies. As long as Viktor Yanukovych was withdrawn from his position, the factor of current Head of the state campaigning is absent. To compare, the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko participated in 2010 election campaign. Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Volodymyr Lytvyn and the Prime Minister of Ukraine Yuliia Tymoshenko. The absence of high state officials in the list of candidates may decrease the level of administrative influence on the election process. Similarly to the previous elections, candidates for the President of Ukraine are usually Members of Parliament. A number of candidates in these elections are temporarily unemployed due to the rotations in power vertical of the country.

Current MPs of Ukraine are: Anatolii Hrytsenko, Petro Poroshenko, Serhii Tihipko, Oleh Liashko, Oleh Tsarov, Oleh Tiahnybok, Petro Symonenko.

Temporarily unemployed are candidates: Mykhailo Dobkin, Yurii Boiko, Natalia Korolevska, Vasyl Tsushko, Dmytro Yarosh, Zorian Shkiriak.

Yuliia Tymoshenko and Oleksandr Klymenko are employees of the parties. Entrepreneurs and business leaders – Vadym Rabynovych, Valerii Saranov, Valerii Konovaliuk and Andrii Hrynenko. Vasyl Kubiida is working in educational sphere, Renat Kuzmin is lawyer.

Table 6 "Candidates for the President of Ukraine according to the workplace"

Division of candidates according to the birthplace

Information about the birthplace is available in the questionnaire, submitted to the CEC. The following table contains the division of candidates according to the birthplace. 7

Table 7. Division of candidates according to the birthplace