In less than a month, local elections will be held under the new electoral legislation. Members of territorial election commissions (TECs) will have to apply several electoral systems at once when establishing the election results of the local elections. Does the CEC plan to train members of election commissions given the quarantine restrictions?
Undoubtedly, these 25th October local elections will be a challenge for all election commissioners – from territorial and precinct election commissions – who will work and organize them. In addition to the fact that we have new electoral legislation, the elections will be held in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, all our activities aimed to improve the professional level of election commissioners will also take place in compliance with all quarantine restrictions. Therefore, the CEC jointly with its international partners plans to conduct the online trainings for election commissioners through various available video conferencing platforms having been already tested during our other activities under the conditions of quarantine. In addition, an educational film is planned to be produced for the election commissioners, which will explain in detail how to apply the new electoral legislation.
One of the most important legislative novelties is the new form and content of the ballot paper. Is there a risk that voters will not have enough time to figure out all these novelties? Does the CEC plan to carry out awareness raising activities in this regard?
A new ballot paper is a real challenge not only for election commissioners, but for voters as well. Thus, it is very important that a voter coming to a polling station knows how to fill in the ballot paper correctly. Therefore, the CEC will implement a number of awareness raising activities, including production and broadcasting of videos on national television describing how to correctly mark and fill in a number of a candidate of a political party whom a voter will wish to support with his/her vote. Also, we are updating our information posters, which will be posted at each polling station and will explain how to vote using the ballot paper. There is a risk that a voter can make a mistake while filling in the ballot, but a set of measures that the CEC will take should allow a voter to exercise his or her will in a way that his or her vote is counted.
Does the Commission have any awareness raising projects that are already being implemented or planned to be implemented within the nearest future?
We work in close cooperation with our international partners: IFES, Council of Europe, the OSCE Project Coordinator. We synchronize all our activities to avoid overlapping. Besides, in cooperation with the Council of Europe, the Central Election Commission is working on the development of an online platform “CEC: Prosvita”. It is a platform where voters, as the subjects of the electoral process, including political parties, observers from civil society organizations, candidates can find out and learn about basic procedures to be used and applied during elections. We also pay specific attention to the conscious choice. Voters need to understand who they vote for, whom they elect in order their expression of will to be conscious and well-informed at the upcoming local elections.
The CEC has recently approved the Strategic Plan for 2020-2025. Why is this document important? What are the CEC’s further actions towards its implementation?
The Strategic Plan approved by the CEC is a new document for the Commission. To my knowledge, the CEC has not had such strategic documents before. In fact, this document helps the CEC to keep the focus in its activities. For example, it clearly outlines the focus of voters’ awareness raising and educational activities to be carried out by the CEC. We understand that in order to make a conscious choice possible we need to work on it not only before elections, but in between elections, especially with such electoral groups as first time voters. Therefore, we have outlined a number of measures to be taken by the CEC to increase the level of public awareness about electoral procedures and expression of will.
Andriy Gevko advises to raise voters’ awareness about peculiarities of the election process with the help of the online training course «Elections in simple terms», developed by the CEC together with the Council of Europe https://cvkpro.com/, and to follow the updates on the platform “CEC: Prosvita” not to miss a new online training course for voters about local elections.
«Elections in simple terms» is a unique online training course that aims to tell about the history of elections, basic principles, and electoral standards, as well as about different types of electoral systems and procedures in Ukraine and other countries.
The Council of Europe project «Supporting the transparency, inclusiveness and integrity of electoral practice in Ukraine» aims to enhance the political and legal culture of voters, the ability of public authorities to organise and conduct elections in accordance with European electoral standards and good practices, as well as strengthen the capacity of women, young voters, national minorities to actively participate in political and public decision-making processes.
