KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd July, 2020) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a law introducing amendments to the country's Electoral Code and other election-related legislation, his press service said on Wednesday.
"President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed the law 'On introducing amendments to select legislative acts of Ukraine pertaining to improvement of electoral legislation,' which the Verkhovna Rada [parliament] adopted on July 16," the press release read.
The amendments specify procedures in cases when disputes arise during elections, clarify related time frames and contain measures expected to simplify electoral procedures at different administrative levels.
This pertains, for example, to the amount of registration fee that candidates have to pay to run in local elections. The fee will now amount to four baseline salaries in each given constituency, whereas in settlements with population below 90,000 people the fee will continue to be waived, as before.
The amendments also change the design of ballots where voters are supposed to select one particular candidate.
Ukraine's Electoral Code, brought into existence by the parliament on January 1, has standardized procedures of elections at all levels, from the presidential vote to the parliamentary vote to local elections. The legislation replaced the network of more than 200 single-mandate Constituencies with 27 regional ones.
