Applications filed by Oblast State Administrations for calling the first local elections in 163 amalgamated territorial communities comprising 722 former local councils are pending for consideration by the Central Elections Commission.

This information is proved by the monitoring data on the progress of the establishment of amalgamated communities in Ukraine, which monitoring is carried out by the Ministry of Regional Development.

The largest number of amalgamated territorial communities that are already awaiting the decision of the Central Elections Commission is 19 in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (region), 14 in Poltava, 12 in each of Chernihiv and Cherkasy, 11 in Volynska, 10 in Kherson, 9 in each of Vinnytsia and Sumy, 8 in Zhytomyr, and 7 in each of Kirovohrad and Odesa Oblasts.

Additional 90 amalgamated communities are at the final stages of the formation process:

• with respect to 9 amalgamated territorial communities, Oblast State Administrations are preparing applications to be filed with the Central Elections Commission,
• 53 ATCs are in the process of making their final decision on the amalgamation,
• 28 ATCs are awaiting the opinion of Oblast State Administrations.

It is a reminder that the law providing for the allocation of funds for holding elections in the amalgamated communities in 2017 became effective on 12 June this year.

Also, it was reported that the Government reallocated some state budget expenditures and appropriated almost UAH 13 million to the Central Elections Commission for arranging for and holding elections in the amalgamated communities.

As is known, altogether, 413 amalgamated territorial communities have been established in Ukraine over the period of 2015 to 2017, which communities are composed of 1971 former local councils