Reforming Local Election Systems in Ukraine in the Context of European Experience

This article is devoted to electoral systems in elections to local self-government bodies in Ukraine and other European states.

In December 2019, the Electoral Code of Ukraine was adopted, signed and published, the draft of which was submitted as early as October 2, 2015. The Electoral Code of Ukraine is the first codified act in the history of independent Ukraine regulating the holding of various types of elections in Ukraine. At the same time, two laws remain in force: “On Central Election Commission” and “On the State Register of Voters”, and two other laws – “On local elections” and “On elections of people’s deputies of Ukraine” – remain in force until the holding of regular or extraordinary elections of the corresponding type. With this in mind, it is relevant to study electoral systems taking into account the introduction of completely new electoral systems for Ukraine in certain types of elections in the Electoral Code.

This issue is particularly important in the context of the potential holding of regular local elections in October 2020, which have unfairly less attention to changing electoral systems than to changing the system of elections of people’s deputies of Ukraine.

The authors of the article analyze the systems of local elections available in the European states and set out in the Electoral Code of Ukraine and the Law of Ukraine “On Local Elections” and give some proposals for their improvement.

After analysing the application of electoral systems in Western Europe, the authors found some common trends for local elections: the transition from a majority system to proportional ones or mixed systems with proportional component; updating the problem of representation of national minorities and women in municipal bodies; the predominantly personalized nature of voting during the application of proportional electoral systems. These features should be taken into account in the process of reforming the electoral institution in Ukraine, which has chosen a course of “synchronization” with the European Union.