Observation mission of local elections in Ukraine – 25 May 2014

Preliminary conclusions presented by Gudrun Mosler-Törnström (SOC, Austria), Head of delegation and member of the Congress, Vice-President of the State Parliament of Salzburg

Dear ladies and gentlemen,

Together with my colleague Arnoldas Abramavicius from Lithuania, it is my pleasure to present to you the preliminary conclusions of the Congress following the observation of yesterday's pre-term local elections in Ukraine. My name is Gudrun Mosler-Törnström, I am Vice-President of the State Parliament of Salzburg, Austria. I had the privilege to be in your country already in October 2010, on the occasion of the last local elections.

You may know that a delegation from the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe composed of 19 members representing 13 European countries has been in Ukraine since last Wednesday, in view of this important Election Day.

Congress has the specific mandate to observe elections at the territorial level in all Council of Europe member states. This is what my colleagues and I did yesterday, upon invitation by Ukraine's state authorities.

Yesterday's elections were held in an emergency situation for your country, for the people of Ukraine and I would say, also for Europe as a whole. Ukraine was voting for a fresh start and this Election Day was an outstanding event - in terms of voters' turnout and challenges for those who had to organise this vote.

This difficult situation was the starting point for our talks with representatives of Government and Parliament of Ukraine and with other interlocutors, among them Ambassadors and civil society activists, in the days prior to Election Day.

The volatility of the present situation was also on our minds when we did our job as election observers  in over 120 polling stations where early local elections were simultaneously held with the presidential vote, more specifically in:

Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast in Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky, Fastiv and Vasylkiv, in Cherkassy Oblast in Cherkassy city, Kaniv and Kamjanka, in Cernihiv Oblast in Pryluky and in Sumy Oblast in Sumy city, Romny and Bilopyllia, in Ternopil Oblast in Zboriv, Zbaraz and Monastyrka as well as in Cernivici Oblast in Cernivici city and Chotyn.

All in all, not least due to the security situation in the south-eastern parts of Ukraine, our delegation was able to visit polling stations in three out of six regional centres, 11 towns of regional and district subordination - and, of course, we covered the vote for the Mayor in the entire capital city Kyiv.

Already during our meetings prior to these elections we understood that, in principle, by the recently amended Law on Local Elections, important shortcomings of 2010 have been addressed. We welcome the fact that the Ukrainian authorities took into consideration the recommendations made by our Congress made in 2010, in particular with regard to:

• the changes of the voters' list in order to reduce possible fraud (let me add that, in general, the quality of the Ukrainian voters' list is gradually improving which is a good sign)

• the decisions of the election commissions in order to make them more democratic and transparent

as well as

• the rights of domestic election observers who are allowed to challenge irregularities.

In addition, by the direct election of the Mayor of Kyiv, the authorities implemented a crucial recommendation of the Congress.

We are also pleased that - as confirmed by observers from other domestic and international institutions - pressure on voters to vote for specific parties or candidates and threatening them was not an issue as in previous elections. This is also true for the misuse of administrative resources. All these are basic conditions for free and fair elections according to European standards.

We are aware that the situation was different in the capital city Kyiv and other big centers on the one hand, and in smaller towns, villages or settlements, on the other side.

However, generally speaking, there is room for improvement with regard to the practical side of election day and in particular the counting procedures:

• in many polling stations there were voters queuing already in the morning and they had to face long waits of 1 hour at an average; the situation was particularly difficult in Kyiv where four ballots were to be completed (for the presidential and the mayoral vote as well as the political parties' lists and the majoritarian candidates for the City Council);

• there were some problems because of the voters' lists which slightly differed for the presidential and the local vote;

• apparently, there were no clear instructions to electoral staff if ballots for the presidential and the local vote should be given to the voters at the same time or separately, which caused confusion among voters in some polling stations;

• the fact that polling stations were systematically under-staffed increased the waiting time throughout the day; not enough experienced and well-trained staff was also a reason for the long and tedious counting procedures at the end of polling day;

• the fact that all ballots (for the presidential and local votes) were collected in one ballot box added to the long counting procedure at the end of the day, at least in some polling stations.

As elected representatives of local and regional European self-government bodies we regretted that these pre-term local elections were held on the same day as the vote for the new President of Ukraine and were - largely - overshadowed by the national vote. Only in smaller towns, villages or settlements' polling stations information was posted on walls about the mayoral vote. In Kyiv the voters were not sufficiently made aware of candidates and programmes, in particular for the city council elections.

Therefore, we recommend to hold the next general local elections separately, without any other vote on the same day. This will be, not least, an important part of Ukraine's current endeavours to strengthen local self-government in order to ensure an efficient and professional territorial administration based on democratically legitimised decentralised structures.

Despite the fragile political environment and the organisational problems, the Congress considers this vote as a positive test at local level. We invite the Ukrainian authorities to continue in this way and make the next general local elections to be held in October 2015 a full success.

Thank you for your attention.