Electoral system for national legislature

Ukraine, Law on Elections of the People’s Deputies of Ukraine (2011, last amended in 2016), [unofficial translation], accessed 13 July 2019

Article 1. Basic Principles of Elections of Members of Parliament of Ukraine

1. The People’s Deputies of Ukraine (hereinafter referred to as “MPs”) shall be elected by citizens of Ukraine on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret voting.

2. The quantitative composition of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is 450 MPs.

3. The election of MPs shall be conducted on the basis of a mixed (proportional-majority) electoral system:

1) 225 MPs shall be elected on the basis of a proportional system in a nationwide multi-member election district (hereinafter, nationwide election district) under electoral lists of MP candidates (hereinafter, electoral lists) from political parties (hereinafter, parties);

2) 225 MPs shall be elected on the basis of a simple majority system in single-mandate election districts (hereinafter, single-mandate election districts).

OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission, Ukraine Early Parliamentary Elections 21 July 2019, Interim Report (11 June– 3 July 2019), accessed 13 July 2019

“The parliament is composed of 450 members elected for a five-year term, on the basis of a mixed proportional-majoritarian electoral system. One half of the MPs are elected in SMDs under a plurality system in a single round (first-past-the-post). The other half of the MPs are elected on the basis of a proportional system with closed party lists in one single nationwide constituency. Political parties must receive at least five per cent of all votes cast in order to participate in the distribution of mandates of the proportional component. In case of an uncontested district, the candidate has to obtain the majority of votes cast to be elected. Election coalitions of parties are not allowed.

Elections will be held only in 199 of the 225 SMDs (see Note below). The Central Election Commission (CEC) is required to publish information on the districts, including the boundaries and number of registered voters in each district, at the latest 175 days prior to the elections. There is no legal requirement to regularly review district boundaries, which were last reviewed in 2012. The number of registered voters in each district may not deviate by more than 12 per cent from the average number of voters of 161,140. The number of registered voters in SMDs ranges from 129,668 to 200,070 with significant deviations of up to 23.91 per cent from the established average. In addition, a number of SMDs in the conflict-affected parts of eastern Ukraine have a much smaller number of registered voters. See also section on National Minorities.”

(Note: Elections will not be held in 26 SMDs in areas not under Ukrainian government control and declared by the parliament as “temporarily occupied territories”, namely in the 12 SMDs in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (Crimea), in 9 of the 21 SMDs in Donetsk oblast and 5 of the 11 SMDs in Luhansk oblast. Subsequently, only 199 of the 225 majoritarian seats will be filed in the new parliament which will be composed of a total of 424 members. See also the 2014 Law of Ukraine “On citizens' rights, freedom assurance, and legal regulations on temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine”, the 2014 Law of Ukraine “On special procedure of local self-government in some districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions”, the 2018 Law “On the peculiarities of State Policy on ensuring Ukraine’s state sovereignty over temporary occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions”)

225 FPTP and 225 List PR using closed list and largest remainder; 5% threshold for parties in order to participate in the distribution of mandates of the proportional component.