Home > 1.3 Free suffrage > UKRAINE - Law on Elections of the People's Deputies
 
 
 
Download file    
 
 
Article 85.
 

Organization and Procedure of Voting


1. Voting shall be held on the day of voting from 8:00 until 20:00 without any breaks. At foreign election district, voting shall be held according to the local time of the country where such precincts are established.


2. The precinct election commission shall be responsible for organizing the conduct of voting and ensuring appropriate order in the premises for voting, and for ensuring the secrecy of expressing the voters’ will during the voting. If an offence is committed for which the legislation of Ukraine provides liability, the head or deputy head of the precinct election commission shall be entitled to invite into the premises for voting a representative of the police, who shall take such measures as are prescribed with respect to the perpetrator and then leave the premises for voting. In other cases, the presence of the police in the premises for voting shall be prohibited.


3. During the conduct of voting at an election precinct, two members of the precinct election commission shall provide a voter with the opportunity to vote: one member of the precinct election commission, upon presentation by the voter of the documents specified, respectively, in Parts 4, 5, or 6 Article 2 of this Law, and if the voter is included in the voter list for the respective election precinct, shall hand the voter list to the voter for his or her signature; the other member shall enter his or her last name and initials and put his or her signature in the designated places on the counterfoils of the ballot papers for the nationwide election district and for the singlemandate election district, as well as writing the number under which the voter is included in the voter list for the election precinct. The voter shall certify the receipt of the ballot papers by putting his or her signature on the voter list and on the designated places on the counterfoils of the ballot papers. After that, the member of the election commission shall detach the counterfoils from the ballot papers and hand one ballot paper for the nationwide election district and one ballot paper for the single-mandate election district over to the voter. The counterfoils of the ballot papers shall be stored by the member of the commission who handed over the ballot papers. Making any other marks on the ballot papers shall be prohibited. A ballot paper shall be issued to a voter who, pursuant to Part 10 Article 2 of this Law, has a right to vote only in the nationwide election district, in accordance with the procedure provided for in this Article for voting only in the nationwide election district.


{Paragraph 2 was added to Part 3 Article 85 pursuant to the Law № 709-VII dd. 21.11.2013}


4. A voter shall be allowed to stay in the premises for voting only for the time necessary for him or her to vote.


5. A voter shall fill out the ballot papers personally, in a booth for secret voting. The presence of other persons in the booth for secret voting during the filling out the ballot papers by the voter shall be prohibited. A voter who, due to his or her corporal defects, is unable to fill out the ballot paper without assistance, may, with consent of the head or other member of the precinct election commission, ask another voter for assistance, with the exception of a member of the election commission, an MP candidate, his or her proxy, a party’s authorized person, or an official observer.


6. To ensure the possibility of voting for blind voters, the Central Election Commission shall produce two ballot paper stencils for each regular election precinct with raised dots (according to the Braille method). For the special election precincts, such stencils shall be allowed to be produced upon a submission from the district election commission.


7. A voter shall have no right to hand his or her ballot papers over to other persons. It shall be prohibited to receive the ballot papers from a person other than the member of the election commission in charge of handing over the ballot papers, as well as to encourage or force voters, by means of bribery, threats, or in any other manner, to hand their ballot papers over to other persons.


8. On the ballot paper for the nationwide election district, the voter shall enter a "plus" symbol ("+") or any other mark that makes clear the result of the expression of his or her will in the box next to the name of the party whose MP candidates he or she is voting for. A voter may vote for MP candidates of one party only. On the ballot paper for a single-mandate election district, the voter shall place a "plus" symbol ("+") or any other mark that makes clear the result of the expression of his or her will in the box next to the name of the MP candidate for whom he or she is voting. A voter may vote for one MP candidate only.


9. Voters shall personally drop their completed ballot papers into the ballot box. A voter who, due to his or her corporal defects, is unable to drop the ballot paper into the ballot box without assistance may, with the consent of the head or other member of the precinct election commission, ask another person to do that in his or her presence, except that he or she may not ask for assistance from a member of the election commission, an MP candidate, a proxy of an MP candidate, a party’s authorized person, or an official observer.


10. If in the course of voting a ballot box has been damaged, the head and no less than three members of the election commission representing different parties or MP candidates shall seal the box in a way that shall exclude the possibility of further dropping in or taking out of ballot papers. Such ballot box shall be kept in the premises for voting within plain sight of the members of the election commission and other persons who have the right to be present at the election precinct during the voting in accordance with the requirements of this Law, and shall not be used until the end of voting.


11. If a voter makes a mistake when filling out the ballot paper, he or she shall have the right to immediately address the election commission member who handed over the ballot paper to him or her with a written request to hand over to him or her another ballot paper for the nationwide election district or for the single-mandate election district. The member of the election commission shall hand another ballot paper over to the voter in accordance with the procedure prescribed by Part 3 of this Article only in exchange for a spoiled ballot paper, which fact shall be noted in the voter list opposite to a voter’s name and certified by the signature of the authorized member of the precinct election commission. A spoiled ballot paper shall be immediately invalidated as unused by the member of the commission who handed it over, and a report certifying this fact shall be drawn up. This report shall be signed by the two members of the precinct election commission who handed over the ballot paper and by the voter who spoiled the ballot paper, and shall be appended to the voter list. The invalidated ballot paper shall be kept by the member of election commission who handed over the ballot paper until the start of vote counting. During vote counting, such ballot paper shall be considered as unused and shall be packed together with the counterfoil into the package with unused ballot papers. Repeated handover of a ballot paper instead of a spoiled one shall not be allowed.


12. At 5 minutes to 20:00, the head of the precinct election commission shall announce that the voting will end and the election precinct will be closed at 20:00. Voters who have come to the election precinct before 20:00 for voting shall have the right to vote. To ensure the exercise of those voters’ right, one of the commission’s members shall, on instructions from the head of the precinct election commission, approach the entrance to the premises for voting and invite all voters who have not voted yet to come into the premises for voting, and shall close the door. As soon as the last voter leaves the premises for voting, the premises shall be locked, and only the members of the election commission and persons entitled by this Law to be present at the meeting of the election commission shall be allowed to stay inside.


13. Immediately after the end of voting, the precinct election commission shall send to the respective district election commission preliminary data on the number of voters included in the voter list of the election precinct by the end of voting and on the number of voters who received ballot papers at the election precinct by the end of voting.


14. At an election precinct established on a ship which on the day of voting will be sailing under the National Flag of Ukraine, or at Ukraine’s polar station, the precinct election commission shall be allowed to announce the end of voting prior to the term specified in Part 1 of this Article if all voters included in the voter for the election precinct have taken part in the voting. The notification specified by Part 13 of this Article shall be sent to the respective district election commission via technical means of communication. The votes at such precinct shall be counted in accordance with the procedure established by this Law immediately after announcement of the end of voting and transmission of the message provided for by Part 13 of this Article.


15. A precinct election commission of an foreign election precinct shall, immediately after the end of voting, send to the Central Election Commission via technical means of communication the preliminary data specified by Part 13 of this Article.


16. Upon receiving the data specified by Part 13 of this Article from the relevant election precincts, the district election commission shall send that preliminary data to the Central Election Commission.


17. Upon receiving preliminary data concerning all election precincts, the Central Election Commission shall publish the aforementioned data on its official website.