The local election rules introduced in 2015 contained positive innovations but, unfortunately, also had a number of gaps that, after the 2015 elections, caused uneven representation or non-representation of territories by deputies in the majority of oblast and rayon councils.

Therefore, it is obvious that the current electoral system does not justify itself and needs to be improved.

To this end, a working group has been set up in MinRegion to draft amendments to the electoral legislation to ensure the representation of citizens in hromada councils and territorial hromadas in rayon and oblast councils, which also engaged representatives of the Ukrainian Association of Rayon and Oblast Councils.

The other day, experts from the working group presented the Concept for Improving Legislation on Local Election.

The concept contains two proposals for choosing the best electoral system for local councils. One proposal is to improve the system that has been operating in Ukraine since 2015, taking into account the formation of capable hromadas and rayons. The other is to introduce a majoritarian electoral system for local councils at all levels – oblast, rayon and basic ones (hromadas).

The full version is available in Ukrainian – please click HERE