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Article 42
 

Absentee Certificates for the Right to Vote on Elections of Deputies

 

1.    A voter, who leaves a settlement where he / she has been put in a voter list at an regular polling station earlier than 30 days (inclusive) before Election Day or who comes back to Ukraine from abroad, may complain to a polling station commission with a written request to issue him/her an absentee certificate for the right to vote on elections of deputies (hereafter – absentee certificate) and for excluding him/her from a voter list. The request should indicate reason preventing him/her from voting at the place of his/her residence as well the number of the territorial election district or the foreign election district, where he/she is going to vote on Election Day. A voter may file such request no later than at 20.00 Friday before Election Day. Based on such application and one of documents, as referred in paragraph 4 (for regular polling stations) and paragraph 6 (for polling stations abroad) of article 2 of this Law, two commission members shall issue an absentee certificate to a voter.

 

2.    The Central Election Commission shall establish the form of the absentee certificate no later than 60 days before Election Day. Absentee certificates shall have unique numeration throughout Ukraine.

 

3.    The absentee certificate shall contain fields for:

 

1)    last name, first name and patronymic  of the voter who was issued the absentee certificate;

 

2)    number of the territorial election district or foreign election district, and number of the  polling station, where it was issued;

 

3)    number of the territorial election district or foreign election district where the voter is going to vote;

 

4)    names and signatures of two commission members issuing the certificate;

 

5)    date of issuance of the certificate;

 

6)    seal of the polling station commission;

 

7)    signature of the voter, who received an absentee certificate.

 

4.    Absentee certificates shall be printed in the quantity of 2% of the number of voters put in the general voter list, as referred to in paragraph 12 of article 40 of this Law. A printing plant shall ensure strict compliance with requested number of absentee certificates, their stocktaking, and delivery in accordance with decisions of the Central Election Commission. Procedure of printing out absentee certificates, their acceptance by the Central Election Commission from a printing plant, handing over to district election commissions shall be determined by the Central Election Commission.

 

5.    The Central Election Commission shall ensure printing of the absentee certificates under the centralized procedure no later than 45 days before Election Day by the state printing plant on the basis of the contract signed with the mentioned plant.

 

6.    Absentee certificates shall be registered high-security documents. The producer of the absentee certificates shall ensure strict adherence to the ordered quantity of the absentee certificates, their storage and handing over to the customer in accordance with the procedure, established by the Central Electoral Commission. The Central Election Commission, district and polling station commissions shall ensure storage, strict stocktaking of accepted and issued absentee certificate in accordance with requirements of this Law. Documents, which ensure storage and stocktaking of absentee certificates, shall be handed over to the Central Election Commission by the printing plant, district and polling station commissions. The Central Election Commission after official promulgation of the elections results shall ensure handing over to the respective archives all control documents for storage.

 

7.    The Central Election Commission no later than 35 days before Election Day shall hand over absentee certificates to the district election commissions in a quantity not exceeding 2 % of the number of voters put in the voter lists within a respective territorial election district under the procedure established by the Central Election Commission.

 

8.    District election commissions no later than 32 days before Election Day together with the voter lists hand over absentee certificates to the polling station commissions in a quantity not exceeding 2% of the tentative number of voters put in the voter lists at the respective polling station according to the procedure stipulated by the paragraph 8 of article 41 of this Law. An act in two copies on handing over absentee certificate to the polling station commission shall be drawn up in form and under the procedure stipulated by paragraph 8 of article 35 of this Law.

 

9.    Polling station commissions of special polling stations shall not be given absentee certificates.

 

10. Polling station commissions of polling stations abroad established in the diplomatic and other official representative offices and consular institutions of Ukraine abroad shall be provided with absentee certificates under the procedure established by the Central Election Commission, in a quantity totaling 1% of the number of voters put in voter list within a respective polling station as of handing over forms. The absentee certificate issued at a polling station abroad shall give reasons for putting a voter on a voter list at the regular polling station only under the procedure stipulated by paragraph 20 of this article.

 

11. Absentee certificates not handed over to the polling station commissions, shall be stored at the district election commission. Based upon a well-grounded request of the polling station commission of the regular polling station, presented no later than 5 days before Election Day, the district election commission by its decision shall hand over the necessary quantity of the absentee certificates to the mentioned polling station commission under the procedure stipulated by paragraph 8 of this article.

 

12. At issuing an absentee certificate on the voter’s request in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article, two members of a polling station commission shall fill in entries in the absentee certificate as referred to in sub-paragraphs 1-6 of paragraph 3 of this Law, and shall ask a voter to affix his/her signature to an absentee certificate. The entry “Absentee certificate # [number of an absentee certificate] has been issued” shall be made in document presented in accordance with paragraph 2 or 6 of article 2 of this Law on the page “special entries” or in other suitable place as well date of the entry, number of the territorial of mentioning of the foreign election district, and a polling station number where an absentee certificate was issued should be indicated. An entry shall be certified with signatures of two polling station commission members with indication of their names and sealed with a polling station commission’s seal. Date of issuance and number of the absentee certificate shall be indicated in a field “signature of voter” of the voter list on the polling station, and signatures of polling station commission members, who issued and absentee certificate, shall be affixed in a field “note” of the mentioned list. Members of the polling station commission at the indicated by the voter place of his/her staying on Election Day (city, rayon, oblast) have by themselves to ascertain number of the territorial election district and provide the voter with the certificate containing address of the respective district election commission as well inform voter on terms of applying to the respective district election commission for his/her putting in voter list based on absentee certificate.

 

13. At 20.00 of the last Friday preceding Election Day polling station commission shall determine the number of voters, who received absentee certificates and calculate the number of unused absentee certificates available. Unused absentee certificates shall be cancelled by separation of the right bottom corner. An act on cancellation of absentee certificates shall be drawn up in a form and under the procedure stipulated by paragraph 8 of Article 35 of this Law. The act shall be drawn up in two copies, one of which shall be handed over to a district election commission no later than 12.00 of the last Saturday preceding Election Day, and the second one shall be stored together with other elections related documents in the polling station commission. The act shall include following information:

 

1)    quantity and numbers of absentee certificates received by a polling station commission;

 

2)    quantity of voters who received absentee certificates;

 

3)    numbers of unused absentee certificates;

 

4)    quantity of cancelled absentee certificates;

 

5)    numbers of territorial election districts, where voters, who have received absentee certificates, are going to cast their votes, and the number of such voters by each territorial election district.

 

14. When drawing up the act mentioned in paragraph 12 of this article, a polling station commission shall check if the quantity of absentee certificates received matches with the number of voters, who received their absentee certificates, and the number of cancelled absentee certificates. If there are any discrepancies between the mentioned data, a polling station commission shall refer to it in the act, and shall give cause of such discrepancy determined with a polling station commission’s decision.

 

15. Unused cancelled absentee certificates shall be packed under the procedure stipulated by paragraph 10 of article 86 of this Law. An inscription “cancelled absentee certificate for the right of voting on elections of people’s deputies of Ukraine” shall be made on a package.

 

16. The package with cancelled absentee certificates and the act of cancellation shall be stored with the secretary of the polling station commission until the voting ends and shall be delivered to a territorial election commission together with elections related documents as referred to in paragraph 11 of article 89 of this Law.

 

17. District election commissions at 20.00 of the last Friday preceding Election Day shall cancel unused absentee certificates under the procedure indicated in paragraph 13 of this article. Following information shall be indicated in the act of the district election commission of cancellation of unused absentee certificates:

 

1)    quantity and numbers of absentee certificates received by a district election commission;

 

2)    quantity and numbers of absentee certificates handed over to polling station commissions;

 

3)    number of unused absentee certificates, which were stored at the district election commission;

 

4)    number of absentee certificates cancelled by the district election commission.

 

18. The district election commission shall pack unused cancelled absentee certificates under the procedure stipulated by paragraph 10 of article 86 of this Law. An inscription “cancelled absentee certificates for the right of voting in elections of people’s deputies of Ukraine” shall be made on a package. The package with cancelled absentee certificates and the act of cancellation shall be stored with the secretary of the district election commission until the protocol promulgating the results of the voting in the territorial election district is prepared.

 

19. A district election commission no later than 30 days before Election Day shall determine within a territorial election district created in the big city one large or medium regular polling station, and within other territorial election districts one large and one medium regular polling station on the territory of each city of oblast importance or administrative center of each rayon as well in resort areas that belongs to the territorial election district, where voters put in a voter list based on their absentee certificates, shall cast their votes.

 

20. A voter who received at a regular polling station an absentee certificate to cast his/her vote in the foreign election district has the right to be put in the voter list and vote at the every polling station abroad. The voting of the voter based on the absentee certificate at the polling station abroad shall fall under procedure stipulated by the paragraph 9 of article 47 of this Law.

 

21.       A voter who intends to cast his/her vote based on an absentee certificate shall file no later than at 12.00 of the last Saturday before Election Day an application with a district election commission, indicated on the absentee certificate, and submit the absentee certificate and a document where an entry on issuance of an absentee certificate is made. In his/her application, the voter shall indicate a polling station determined in accordance with paragraph 19 of this article he/she is going to vote at on Election Day. The absentee certificate shall not give the voter a right to vote in the settlement, where such absentee certificate was issued.

 

22. District election commissions shall compile for each polling station determined in accordance with paragraph 19 of this article a list of voters intending to cast their votes by absentee certificates at the respective polling station in the form, established by the Central Election Commission. A voter’s name shall be put in the voter list with indication of absentee certificate’s number in a “notice” field and signatures of two district election commission members affixed. A voter shall not be put in a voter list if an absentee certificate is unduly executed or records in it differ from records in the entry on receipt of the absentee certificate according paragraph 12 of this article. The absentee certificate without a voter’s signature shall be invalid.

 

23. A polling station commission member of a regular or special polling station located within the respective territorial election district in a settlement without a polling station determined in accordance with paragraph 19 of this article who is put in the voter list on the polling station in another settlement, may complain under the procedure stipulated by paragraph 21 of this article to a district election commission requesting to allow he/she to vote at the polling station, where he/she is a commission member. In such a case the district election commission may decide to put such person on the voter list at the respective polling station.

 

24. When the district election commission puts a voter on the voter list on the basis of the absentee certificate under the procedure stipulated by paragraph 22 of this article or decides to put a voter on a voter list under the procedure stipulated by paragraph 23 of this article the entry on receipt of the absentee certificate mentioned in paragraph 20 of this article, shall be cancelled by crossing out a seal of a polling station commission, which issued the absentee certificate, with indication of the date of crossing out and affixing signatures of two members of a district election commission.

 

25. A list of voters being compiled by a district election commission based on absentee certificates under the procedure stipulated by paragraph 22 of this article shall be handed over to a polling station commission of a respective polling station determined in accordance with paragraph 19 of this article no later than on 16.00 of the last Saturday before Election Day. Such handing over shall be performed by two district election commission members at the meeting of the respective polling station commission and shall be certified with an act drawn up in form and under the procedure stipulated by paragraph 8 of article 35 of this Law. The mentioned list shall be an integral part of a voter list for voting on the respective polling station. Voters and sheets in a voter list for an absentee voting shall be numbered separately form numbering voters and sheets in a voter list received by the polling station commission in accordance with paragraph 8 of article 41 of this Law.

 

26.       A district election commission shall submit consolidated information on the number of absentee certificates issued by all polling station commissions of a respective territorial election district and the number of voters intending to cast their votes by absentee certificates in a respective territorial election district to the Central Election Commission no later than 16 hours before voting starts. The Central Election Commission shall submit information on expected number of absentee voters to respective district election commission and shall publish it on its web site no later than 12 hours before the voting starts.