References: Art. 1, Law "On the Central Election Commission"

A member of the CEC may not be an MP or hold any other elected office, nor be a candidate for the position of the president of Ukraine, nor a parliamentary candidate, nor his/her official representative, nor an authorized representative of a political party or electoral block that takes part in the elections, nor a spouse or close relative of a candidate, nor a candidate's subordinate, nor a member of some other election commission, nor a member of the initiative group of a national referendum.

A CEC member may not be an executive official, civil servant of any other agency or local self-governance body. He may not engage in entrepreneurial activity or any other activity except teaching, research and creative work in his own free time. He may not be on the board of directors or a supervisory board of a profit-making enterprise. Any member of the CEC who was a member of a political party prior to being appointed to the CEC must suspend his party membership. No more than one third of the membership of the CEC can be changed within one year after the approval of the CEC members.

References: Art. 3, 7, Law "On the Central Election Commission"

The CVU calls upon public authorizes and political forces to refrain from any pressure upon members of the Central Election Commission.

The CVU points out that the Central Election Commission should adopt and make public the Schedule of 2007 Parliamentary Election in Ukraine as soon as possible. Also, the CVU consider it advisable to offer protections services to all CEC members and organize guarding of the CEC premises, in particular, to prevent uncontrolled movements of unauthorized persons in CEC.

While the formal criteria of independence, as specified in the law, are observed, political bargaining over the position of the chairman of the CEC is very strong, and the influence of the head of state on the chairman and leaders of the CEC is disproportionately high.

References: Committee of Voters of Ukraine National Institute for strategic studies, See: [ LINK ]

Peer Review Comments: For national elections to the Parliament, the Central Election Commission (CEC) and electoral commissions at district and precinct level are formed on the basis of proportional representation of those forces currently in Parliament. This means that by nature the electoral commissions are political bodies, and that parties without current representation in Parliament are excluded from their composition.

References: Art. 6, Law "On the Central Election Commission"

References: Art. 28, Law "On the Central Election Commission"

References: Interview with expert

Peer Review Comments: With regard to the 2007 Parliamentary elections, there is evidence that the CEC members appointed by the then-ruling coalition (i.e. representatives of the Regions, Communist and Socialist parties) made a political decision to refuse the leading opposition force (Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko) registration on rather spurious legal grounds. Whilst it was clear that this decision would be struck down by the judiciary, it did delay the campaigining of this force by 10 days, thus giving the Party of Regions a 'head start'.

IPeople will come to polling stations and will not be able to cast their votes as the lists will be lacking their names. These cases may be stated as a legal grounding for appeals against poll results, both at state and local levels, he said in his interview to Delo newspaper.

According to Mr. Popov, the voter record is "out of anybod's concern" now.

References: Ukrayinska Pravda "Voter Registration Still Without Executor" July 18, 2007

Peer Review Comments: Voter lists were the main problem in the 2007 Parliamentary elections, with various inaccurracies especially due to the computer translation of names, the failure to remove dead souls from the list in a timely manner and the absence of a national list. However, voters are able to check the lists in advance of polling day. In practice, implementation of the election law is ad hoc at the precinct level, with people not on the list allowed to vote in some cases with ID and a decision of the PEC, while in other cases they are permitted only to make a complaint.

In the 2002 presidential election, the election results were contested in the Supreme Court by Our Ukraine bloc, who supported Viktor Yushchenko.

References: Article 30 of the Law of Ukraine On Election of Deputies of the Supreme Council Code of Administrative Court Procedure

2. Uzhhorod public consulting room of the CVU supported an interesting claim against the constituency election commission, which refused to register observers of the CVU. The cause caused great public response due to efforts of the lawyer of Zakarpattya public consulting room of the CVU and local press service of the CVU. Finally, Mukachevo town court has obliged the commission to accept an application from the observer. Court proceedings were covered in local media and the national TV channels (1+1). In addition, many newspapers kept track of the case.

3. The group of newly elected deputies of Vinnytsa rayon council appealed to Vinnytsa public consulting room of the CVU for assistance in organization and conduction of the constituent session of the council. It turned out that they had no previous experience with local self-government bodies.

Lawyers rendered professional assistance in establishment of the deputy group for holding the constituent session and execution of the relevant papers. After that, the lawyer helped them to organize the secret vote for the head of the rayon council. Due to input of the CVU, the session complied with requirements of current legislation. The final stroke was participation in transference of authorities form the former head to the newly elected one and development of the respective documents.

References: "Voter's Protection Service Project Report Election-related disputes" (election 2006) by the Committee of Voters of Ukraine See www.cvu.org.ua/files/doc11486542333_Sudovi-spravu-SZV-06-zvit.doc

References: Interview with MP Katerina Levchenko

References: UKRAINIAN MONITOR - EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION ON ELECTIONS IN UKRAINE - Centre for peace, conversions and foreign policy of Ukraine, 2006 See [ LINK ]

Peer Review Comments: During the 2007 elections, over 1,000 international election observers were present.

"The Ukrainian people expressed their will and we are satisfied that it happened freely and fairly. Now we should wait, in what the negotiations on the coalition result, as the negotiations are not easy, and what a government is formed. But already now we may say, no matter what a coalition is formed, as a result of the negotiations, we will be happy to cooperate with it in development of bilateral relations."

As for new 2007 election presence of international election observers causes concerns of Committee of Voters of Ukraine. International organizations like ODIHR / OSCE and foreign governments have not received official invitations from Ukraine for participation in election observation yet. Even if such invitations are sent, organization of missions will take some time. However, it is quite possible some biased international observers will be assigned.

References: EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION ON ELECTIONS IN UKRAINE - UKRAINIAN MONITOR [ LINK ] Committee of Voters of Ukraine

Peer Review Comments: In 2007 there were some delays due to the pre-term nature of the election and uncertainty over the date of this. However, to my knowledge, the CEC dealt efficiently with the ODIHR/OSCE observer accreditation and 700 observers were part of this mission. The observers did not report any substantive or systematic efforts to hinder their activities.