The foreign electoral district of Ukraine (, ) is an electoral district which unites electoral precincts situated outside the territory of Ukraine and which comprises all polling stations located inside embassies and consulates of Ukraine and inside military bases abroad, where there are Ukrainian peacekeeping contingents (Kosovo and DR Congo). The responsibilities of district election commission for the Foreign electoral district are carried out by the Central Election Commission. In this district, only nationwide votings are held, i.e., presidential and parliamentary elections, as well as nationwide referendums. Local elections are not held there.
Polling station on ships under the flag of Ukraine, which are being deployed in the day of voting, and the polling station at Vernadsky Research Base in Antarctica, despite actually being outside the territory of Ukraine, are included into usual electoral districts on the territory of Ukraine. A polling station on a ship is included in the district where its port of registry is located,CEC Resolution «On the establishment in the electoral district #129, as a special case, of special polling stations on vessels that will be sailing under the State Flag of Ukraine on 25 May 2014, and of the respective polling station commissions» — website of Verkhovna Rada (archive) and the polling station at the polar station is included in the district #223 (Kyiv, Shevchenkivskyi District) where the headquarters of the National Antarctic Scientific Center of Ukraine are located.Kyiv — electoral district #223 — website of State voters register
Among diplomatic missions of Ukraine, there are not only embassies and consulates, but also missions to international organizations and honorary consulates, but there are no polling stations in them. Apart from embassies and consulates, there is a polling station at the Branch office of the Embassy of Ukraine in Argentina, which is located in the city of Santiago, Chile.
Any citizen of Ukraine without a criminal record can apply to be a member of precinct election commission in the Foreign electoral district, with exception to candidates and their representatives, governments officials, including staff of diplomatic missions.Law of Ukraine «On elections of the President of Ukraine» — Article 24. Formation of precincts election commissions, paragraph 10
In November 2011 the new version of the Law of Ukraine "On Elections of People's Deputies of Ukraine" was adopted, in which the Foreign electoral district was abolished, and all its polling stations abroad were evenly distributed among electoral districts in the city of Kyiv. However, in April 2012 Constitutional Court of Ukraine recognized this innovation unconstitutional on a basis that adding foreign polling stations to electoral districts in Kyiv impedes the full reflection of the will of voters who live in Kyiv,Decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on the constitutionality of the provisions of the second part of Article 22 of the Law of Ukraine «On Elections of People's Deputies of Ukraine» — website of Verkhovna Rada (archive) so later the Foreign electoral district was brought back to the law.Law of Ukraine «On amendments to some legislative acts of Ukraine to improve laws concerning organization of elections» — website of Verkhovna Rada
Number of voters and their turnout As of the day of voting in the first round of 2019 Ukrainian presidential election, there were 552,357 eligible voters (around 1.55% of all eligible voters) in the Foreign electoral district, of them 268 were on the military base in Goma, DR Congo, and 42 on military base in Novo Selo, Kosovo. As of the day of voting of 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, there were 102 polling stations in 72 countries of the World, including 5 in Germany, 4 in the United States, Poland and Italy, and 3 in Canada, Spain, Turkey and China. The Consulate-general of Ukraine in Milan is the only place in the Foreign electoral district where there are two polling stations.
The Foreign electoral district differs from usual electoral districts by its pretty low turnout (around 10-15% compared to over 50% on the territory of Ukraine, however voters in countries where there is well organized Ukrainian community show a bit higher turnout), because of enormous areas of voting precincts which make many voters unable to get to the polling station, and even if they do, they have to stand in very long queues to vote. Also, there is an opinion that only a small portion of Ukrainian citizens abroad are included in the lists of voters in Foreign electoral district, due to quite complicated procedure of applying for consular registration and due to many Ukrainians hiding the fact of their staying abroad from Ukrainian authorities. Also, to vote in the Foreign electoral district, a person has to visit an embassy or consulate twice: once to register and once to vote.
Differences from usual electoral districts The electoral process on the Foreign electoral district differs from that in the electoral districts on the territory of Ukraine in many ways. Among differences there are: Electoral districts on the territory of Ukraine were formed in a way that approximately an equal number of voters resided in each of them. At the moment of formation of today's electoral districts in 2012, the average number of voters in each district was 161,140.CEC Resolution «On the formation of single-mandate electoral districts on a permanent basis within the territories of Autonomous Republic of Crimea, oblasts, cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol» — website of Verkhovna Rada (archive) Foreign electoral district with its 552,357 voters clearly do not follow this rule. During parliamentary elections for the Verkhovna Rada, voters in each electoral district on the territory of Ukraine not only get a ballot with a list of parties elected nationwide, but also get a ballot with a list of candidates to represent their electoral district in the parliament (Ukraine has a mixed system of voting, where 225 MPs are elected via a nationwide list of parties and 225 are elected one from each electoral district). Voters in Foreign electoral district are only given a ballot with a list of parties, allowing them to vote for only the 225 party-list seats. Starting with the Next Ukrainian parliamentary election, all seats will be at-large party-list seats, allowing overseas voters to vote for all seats for the first time.Electoral Code becomes effective in Ukraine, Interfax-Ukraine (1 January 2020) Local elections (elections of city, town and village mayors, elections of village, town, city, district and region councils etc.) are not held in the Foreign electoral district. The Central Election Commission perform the duties of district election commission in the Foreign electoral district, in particular, appoints members of precinct election commissions, receives protocols of votes count from them and registers the observers.Law of Ukraine «On elections of the President of Ukraine» — Article 21. System of election commissions, paragraph 3 Some role in organizing electoral process in the Foreign electoral district is also played by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, such as taking part in formation of staff of precinct commissions,Law of Ukraine «On elections of the President of Ukraine» — Article 24. Formation of precincts election commissions, paragraph 4 maintains the list of voters in the Foreign electoral district,CEC Resolution «On clarification about preparation and clarification of voter lists for preparing and holding the election of the President of Ukraine»: VII. Assembling and clarifying the voters lists at polling stations abroad — website of Verkhovna Rada (archive) transfers voting ballots and other voting documentation from Central commission to precinct ones and vice versa.Law of Ukraine «On elections of the President of Ukraine» — Article 73. The procedure for sending election ballots to election commissions, paragraph 6 Just as on usual polling stations in Ukraine, foreign polling stations are opened for voters from 8 to 20 o'clock, but according to local time, not the time in Ukraine.Law of Ukraine «On elections of the President of Ukraine» — Article 75. Preparation for voting on the Election Day (Re-vote Day), paragraph 1 The polling station to be opened the earliest is the one at the Embassy of Ukraine in Australia in Canberra. It opens at 23 o'clock of previous day in Ukrainian time. The latest to open is the polling station at the Consulate-general of Ukraine in San Francisco, which opens at 18 o'clock Ukrainian time. Unlike the territory of Ukraine, where electoral precincts are never bigger than a hundred square kilometers and in big cities they can be even smaller than a block, in the Foreign electoral district precincts can contain whole countries or sometimes even considerable parts of continents. That creates a lot of trouble for voters abroad. In the Foreign electoral district voting at the place of residence (for people who due to health problems are unable to visit a polling station personally) is not carried out because of giant sizes of electoral precincts.Law of Ukraine «On elections of the President of Ukraine» — Article 77. The procedure for organizing voting at the place of residence, paragraph 18 In polling stations abroad voters should present a travel passport, diplomatic passport or service passport to get a ballot, while in polling station in Ukraine voters should present an identity card.Tutorial for members of precinct election commission , article 95 — Vyborkom While citizens of Ukraine who live in Ukraine are added to lists of voters according to their resident registration, citizens abroad are added to the lists according to the data of consular registration. In countries where there is a significant number of Ukrainian citizens, e.g. Poland, Germany, Moldova, USA or Canada, lists of voters can be as large as tens of thousands people (with the biggest list belonging to a polling station at the embassy in Chișinău — over 50 thousand voters). Meanwhile, on the territory of Ukraine a list of voters in every polling station never exceeds 2,500 people.
Abolition of foreign polling station of Ukraine in Russia
In 2018 the Central Election Commission, on the submission of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, decided to close all Ukrainian polling stations on the territory of Russia, namely in the embassy in Moscow and in consulates in Saint-Petersburg, Rostov-na-Donu, Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk. Voters residing in Russia were moved to the polling stations in neighboring countries. North Caucasian and Southern federal districts of Russia were included into the electoral precinct of the Embassy of Ukraine in Georgia, the rest of European Russia into precinct of Embassy of Ukraine in Finland, Asian Russia into precinct of Embassy of Ukraine in Kazakhstan. That was done due to security reasons. Pavlo Klimkin, then the Minister of foreign affairs, said that there are significant security risks, such as law enforcement, administrative and propaganda pressure on voters and election commissions members, possibility of dangerous provocation, infiltration of special services agents into election commissions, intervention of Russian authorities into elections etc. Minister summarized the position of MFA with such a statement:
This gave rise to Russian media claiming that 2019 Ukrainian presidential election is illegitimate, with arguments that polling stations on the territory of Russia were abolished, and also that Russian observers were denied permission to observe Ukrainian elections.
This decision was challenged in the Supreme Court of Ukraine in January 2019, but the court recognized it legal.
Difficulties with voting abroad