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Ukraine

Ukraine: The Role of Joint Advocacy in Protecting IDPs’ Electoral Rights

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1. Context

Ensuring that IDPs can exercise their full voting rights has been a challenge in Ukraine. Following the 2014 occupation of Crimea and the beginning of armed conflict in the East of Ukraine, some 1.4 million IDPs1 were eligible to vote in presidential elections Nadiya, IDP from Donetsk based on existing laws. However, until late 2019, IDPs were effectively excluded from participating in local elections and voting for half of the national parliamentary seats.2 To comply with electoral law residency requirements for changing their electoral address, IDPs needed to relinquish their residency registration (“propyska”) in the non-Government controlled areas (NGCA), which would potentially limit their ability to travel to their area of origin across the contact line and create concerns when they travel to NGCA.3 This changed on 19 December 2019, when the Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) passed the new Electoral Code of Ukraine and its amendments to the Law on the State Register of Voters, which included provisions to ensure that IDPs have the right to vote in all elections, including local elections.4