Secrets of successful candidates in AH elections revealed in Chernihiv region

On March 27-29, 2018, the Human Rights Educational House – Chernihiv hosted the training “Who, if not us? Building a new local government” for active community members and local activists from all over Ukraine who plan to participate in local elections to newly created united territorial communities.

The objective of the event was to provide future candidates for deputies and heads of communities, as well as local activists, with information about the opportunities and challenges of decentralization in Ukraine, to encourage the most active community members to run for local government and take responsibility, to teach the mechanisms of participating in elections as a candidate and how to conduct successful election campaigns.

Leading Ukrainian experts from the NGO “Committee of Voters of Ukraine”

Denis Rybachok

and

Serhiy Slynko

, who acted as trainers for the event, introduced the attendees to the aspects of decentralization in Ukraine, its opportunities and challenges. They paid special attention to the organization of the electoral process in united territorial communities, the procedure for nominating candidates, conducting election campaigning and combating unfair practices in elections.

“One of the biggest problems of the decentralization reform is the issue of personnel. In principle, the state has provided everything for the implementation of the reform – powers and resources. But it all depends on the people themselves, how they will use these powers and resources. Today, people who want to be candidates in one way or another have arrived, so we want to provide information so that people are not afraid to run for power and take responsibility,” said Denis Rybachok.

The expert also emphasized that the decentralization reform is extremely dynamic and the Verkhovna Rada adopts about 10 new draft laws every year. That is, the procedures that existed a year ago and those that exist today can be two different things. The same can be said about the elections that are held under the Law, which was adopted in 2015, but now the Parliament has adopted the Election Code in the first reading. That is, everything can change again and it is important for candidates to know this.

“It is very important that candidates set realistic goals when they go to voters. We provide practical advice on what a normal election program should look like. That is, if it is a promise, then it should have a reasonable deadline for implementation, and it should also be within the framework of the relevant powers,” the trainers noted.

As a reminder, on April 29, 2018, elections will be held in 40 united territorial communities of Ukraine (4 urban, 14 settlement, 22 rural AHs). These 40 AHs include 133 local councils (4 urban, 16 settlement, 113 rural).

In particular, in Vinnytsia region, such elections will be held in 1 united territorial community, in Volyn region – in 1 AH, in Dnipropetrovsk region – in 4 AH, in Donetsk region – in 1 AH, in Zaporizhia region – in 7 AH, in Ivano-Frankivsk region – in 2 AH, in Kirovohrad region – in 3 AH, in Luhansk region – in 1 AH, in Odesa region – in 3 AH, in Poltava region – in 2 AH, in Rivne region – in 3 AH, in Sumy region – in 1 AH, in Ternopil region – in 2 AH, in Kharkiv region – in 4 AH, in Kherson region – in 1 AH, in Khmelnytsky region – in 2 AH, in Chernivtsi region – in 2 ATCs.

The event is organized by the All-Ukrainian Coalition for Legal Aid and the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights within the framework of the project “Free and Fair Local Elections in Ukraine” with the support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).