Ukraine's law on local elections comes into force

Under the new law, a first-past-the-post system will be used to elect members of village and township legislatures in single-seat electoral districts, which make up the territory of the appropriate administrative entities. Meanwhile, members of regional, city and district legislatures will be elected based on the 'one person, one vote' rule with open election tickets. The electoral threshold for parties has been increased to 5%, as compared with the 3%-threshold used at the 2010 elections. Political parties registered before the publication of the new law will be able to run in local elections. The transitional points of the document also say that elections to the local legislatures of Crimea and certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions will not be held. The law bars electoral blocs formed by parties from taking part in the polls. The election campaign is due to begin 50 days before the vote. The Ukrainian parliament earlier passed a resolution setting the next local elections in Ukraine for October 25. Central Election Commission deputy head Andriy Mahera announced that the election campaign would be launched on September 5.