2009

Ukraine

Voting in Ukraine

The political power in Ukraine is divided into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial.

The Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament, is the highest legislative body.

The executive power in Ukraine belongs to the President.

Both President and members of the Verkhovna Rada are elected.

The election takes place every four years.

All citizens of Ukraine who have reached the age of eighteen have the right to vote.

But only those, who have reached the age of twenty-one, have the right to be elected to the Verkhovna Rada.

The candidates to the Verkhovna Rada must not be younger than thirty years of age.

The candidates to the Presidency or to the Verkhovna Rada can be nominated by a political party or any other

political or social organization or even by a group of voters.

During the election campaign, the candidates make their programmes public.

These political programmes are widely  discussed in the mass media and on television.

When election day comes (it is usually Sunday), the people in Ukraine go to the polls to elect the members of the

Verkhovna Rada or the President of Ukraine.

A voter gives his name and shows his passport. Then he receives his ballot-paper and may go to a cubicle to

vote. Voting is secret. Then the voter casts his ballot-paper in the ballot box.

Often the elections of the local government take place simultaneously with the elections to the Verkhovna Rada.

(From English: 1000 topics)