On 14 May 2021, a public discussion “Information support of elections, awareness-raising and effective regulation of campaigning, including in social media”* took place within the framework of the work of the Ukrainian Parliamentary Committee on State Building, Local Governance, Regional and Urban Development on improving the electoral legislation upon the results of the 2020 local elections. Members of the Parliament of Ukraine, representatives of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine, public authorities and local self-government bodies, non-governmental organisations and the expert community, engaged in reforming of the electoral legislation, participated in the discussion.
During the discussion, Mr Andriy Hevko, a member of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine, presented the results and achievements of the “CEC: prosvita” information and education campaign, as well as the activities carried out by the Central Election Commission of Ukraine together with its partners, including the Council of Europe**, before and during the 2020 local elections in Ukraine. Among other things, he noted that “improving the legal culture of the participants of the election process is one of the priorities of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine, specified in the Strategic Plan of the Commission for 2020 – 2025. In preparation to the local elections, starting from December 2019, we have planned an awareness-raising campaign for voters. We have developed an awareness-raising project – "CEC: prosvita". The main idea of this project is to show that every choice is important, particularly, when a person makes this choice consciously and responsibly."
The Council of Europe has provided and continues to provide all necessary support to the Central Election Commission of Ukraine within the framework of the project "Supporting the transparency, inclusiveness and integrity of electoral practice in Ukraine" in order to improve the legal and political culture of subjects and participants of the electoral process in Ukraine. In particular, on the eve of the 2020 local elections, with the support of the Project an interactive online platform about elections “CEC: prosvita” was developed, which became a joint awareness-raising project of the CEC and the Council of Europe. The platform was created for Ukrainian citizens – voters, including first-time voters, election commissioners, observers, candidates and parties, as well as other participants of the election process.
The online platform “CEC: prosvita” includes training courses “About elections in simple terms” and “About local elections for voters”, as well as informational and educational materials about local elections. A new online training course for observers to be placed on the platform is currently being developed.
*The discussion was aimed at developing recommendations for further improvement of the legal framework for information support of elections in Ukraine, and covered the issues of regulation of election campaigning and information support of elections, awareness-raising activities of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine, media participation in voter education, problematic aspects of information support and campaigning for persons with disabilities and ensuring voters' access to open election data.
**The cooperation is carried out 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 for 2018 – 2022.
