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 out-ofcountry election precincts, 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 chair or deputy chair 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 one of the documents specified in Part one of Article 8 of this Code, 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 of the precinct election commission shall enter his or her last name and initials and put his or her signature in the designated place on the counterfoil of the ballot paper, 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 paper by putting his or her signature on the voter list and on the designated place on the counterfoil of the ballot papers After that, the member of the election commission shall detach the counterfoil from the ballot paper and hand one ballot paper 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.


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 paper personally, in a booth for secret voting. The presence of other persons in the booth for secret voting, or photo and video recording during the filling out the ballot paper by the voter shall be prohibited. A voter who, due to health reasons (due to disability, temporary health disorder, age) , is unable to fill out the ballot paper independently, may, with consent of the chair 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 agent, a party’s authorized person, or an official observer.


6. A voter shall have no right to hand his or her ballot paper 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.


7. Having decided on the party, for which a voter votes, he or she shall, in the box next to the name of the party, enter a "plus" symbol ("+") or any other mark that makes clear the result of the expression of his or her will, whereas in the rectangle for entering the number of an MP candidate near the text “From the political party, for which I voted, I support an MP candidate” he or she shall enter the ordinal number of an MP candidate he or she supports, indicated in the regional list of the party that is provided on the information poster of this party.


8. If a voter has entered the non-existent ordinal number of an MP candidate in the respective rectangle for entering the number of an MP candidate next to the text “From the political party, for which I voted, I support an MP candidate”, or if a voter has entered digits, which do not allow establishing clearly what ordinal number has been entered, or if he or she has entered no number or no mark, however, at the same time he or she has made a mark next to a party’s name, that makes clear the result of the expression of his or her will, it shall be deemed that a voter supports the entire regional list of MP candidates from the respective party without support of any individual candidate from that list.


9. Voters shall personally cast their completed ballot papers into the ballot box.

A voter who, due to health reasons (due to disability, temporary health disorder, age), is unable to cast the ballot paper into the ballot box independently may, with the consent of the chair 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, his or her agent, a party’s authorized person, or an official observer.

10. If in the course of voting a ballot box has been damaged, the chair and no less than three members of the election commission representing different parties shall seal the box in a way that shall exclude the possibility of further casting in or taking out of ballot papers. Such ballot box shall be kept in the premises for voting within plain sight of the election commission members and other persons who have the right to be present at the election precinct during the voting in accordance with the requirements of this Code, 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. The member of the election commission shall hand another ballot paper over to the voter in accordance with the procedure prescribed by Part three 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 an act certifying this fact shall be drawn up. This act 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 chair 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 chair 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 election commission members and persons entitled by this Code to be present at the election commission’s meeting shall be allowed to stay inside.

13. 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 one of this Article if all voters included in the voter list for the election precinct have taken part in the voting. The votes at such precinct shall be counted in accordance with the procedure established by this Code immediately after announcement of the end of voting.

14. During the day of voting, a district election commission shall provide for sending the data on a number of voters, which were issued ballot papers at an election precinct, to the Central Election Commission pursuant to the procedure established by the Central Election Commission.

15. Repealed.

16. In case the Central Election Commission decides to conduct an experiment or a pilot project using innovative technologies in accordance with Part one of Article 18 of this Code, the respective election commissions shall organize the voting procedure within the framework of such an experiment or pilot project simultaneously with the actions provided for in this Article, in compliance with the requirements of this Code.

Voters may participate in an experiment or pilot project using innovative technologies, only if they simultaneously vote in the manner prescribed by this Article.

Voters cannot be forced to participate in an experiment or pilot project using innovative technologies.