On 5 September 2020, the electoral process for 2020 local elections in Ukraine, scheduled for 25 October 2020, has officially started. These local elections will be held according to the new rules set by the Electoral Code of Ukraine, which was adopted by the Parliament of Ukraine in December last year and which has been significantly amended in part of local elections legal framework in mid-July this year. This election process is currently taking place in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the respective quarantine measures introduced by the Government of Ukraine throughout the whole country. Due to these circumstances, both the organisers and the participants of the electoral process will face numerous challenges.

Thus, starting from 7 till 23 September 2020, the Council of Europe* is organising a series of webinars on the main aspects of the upcoming local elections. The webinars are organised in cooperation with the NGO “Human Rights Platform”. The principal aim of the webinars is to reach out to as many Ukrainian voters as possible, including different electoral stakeholders involved into the organization and conduct of local elections.

The following topics and aspects are planned to be covered during the webinars:

• the main stages of the electoral process and its key deadlines;
• organization of the electoral process and the system of election commissions at the local elections, their hierarchy and powers;
• local selfgovernment bodies to which the elections will be held on October 25;
• nomination and registration of candidates to local councils and for the positions of village, settlement and city mayors;
• electoral systems to be used at the local elections and the way how the winners of the local elections will be determined;
• media coverage of electoral process;
• election campaigning, campaign financing and reporting;
• election dispute resolution and protection of electoral rights during the election process.

On 7 September 2020, the first webinar was dedicated to international electoral standards, local elections calendar and key deadlines, novelties in electoral legislation, as well as specifics of organization and conduct of local elections in the context of COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine introduced.

Andriy Hevko, the CEC member and one of the speakers at the webinar, stated that “it is important that voters, when exercising their voting rights, make an informed choice and elect local authorities, but not the national authorities, in order to avoid any misconception […] This is the issue of political culture, the issue of awareness raising activities which the Central Election Commission is also going to organize”.

All webinars will be live streamed on Facebook pages of the Council of Europe electoral assistance projects in Ukraine and the NGO "Human Rights Platform" and to YouTube.

The webinars’ video record will also be available online after they are held.

*Series of webinars are organized within the framework of the Council of Europe project “Supporting the transparency, inclusiveness and integrity of electoral practice in Ukraine”, implemented within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2018 – 2021