CONTENT Intro 6 Summary 9 Major recommendations 19 Election system and election legislation 25 Background and Political Context 26 Special Aspects of Conducting Local Elections 29 Election System . . 30 Major Legislative Changes and New Developments 33 Unsolved Problems of Legislation 36 Territorial organization of elections. Formation oF territorial election constituencies 39 Procedure for Formation of Territorial Election Constituencies 40 Analysis of Procedure For Formation of Territorial Election Constituencies 42 Nomination and registration of candidates: review of the main problems and activity of political parties 47 Nomination of Candidates 49 RegistrationofCandidates 51 Activity of Local Party CelLs ConcerningNominationofCandidates 56 Activity of Central Election Commission 63 Description of Powers and Authority 64 Main Areas of Activity of the CEC at the Regular LocaL Elections in Ukraine 65 Key Problems in CEC Activity 70 Activity of Territorial Election Commissions 75 CEC Authority over the Formation of TECs 77 The Powers of TECs in Respect of Formation of Other Election Commissions 79 Turnover of Members of TECs 80 Activity of Precinct Election Commissions 89 Organization of ELections on November 15,2015 93 OrganizationofELections in Krasnoarmiisk and Mariupol (Donetsk ObLast) 94 Pre-election activities of political parties 97 Financing of election campaigns and submission of reports by election subjects 103 FinanciaL Discipline and Reporting of Election Participants 105 Income (Receipts) and Expenses 108 GenderAspect of Local Elections 127 Legal Regulation 128 The Practice of Compliance with Gender Quota Requirements in Nomination Lists 129 Gender Analysis of Elections 136 Internally displaced persons' suffrage 147 Violation of legislation 157 Illegal Pre-Election Campaigning 159 BriberyofVoters 162 Unlawful Activities of Election Commissions 166 Criminal Intervention in the Election Process 168 Abuse of Administrative Resources at the Regular Local Elections 169 Voting process, election outcome and PVT results 173 Typical Violations in the Voting and Vote Tabulation on October 25,2015 174 The Run of Events on Election Day in the Second Round of City Head Elections Held on November 15,2015 178 VoterTurnout in the Second Round of Elections Held on November 15,2015 180 The Most High-Profile Cases Recorded DuringVoteTabulation 181 Voting Process in Krasnoarmiisk and Mariupol on November 29,2015 184 Results of PVT in Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Odesa, 25.10.2015 186 Analysis of election results 197 Conclusions 225 Recommendations 241