On April 7th, the Central Election Commission officially announced the results of the first round of the presidential election on March 31st. Vladimir Zelensky received 30.24% or 5,714,034 votes, Petro Poroshenko - 15.95% or 3,014,609 votes. 18,893,864 voters took part in the voting. 22,600 ballots were deemed invalid. The Commission decided to hold a second vote in the latest Ukrainian presidential election on March 31st (second round), having scheduled it for Sunday, April 21st 2019. The electoral campaign in the period between the two rounds was characterized by a high intensity of the distribution of “black PR” and campaigns aimed at discrediting candidates on social media platforms and traditional media, as well as through printed campaign materials. According to the observers of “Uspishna Varta”, these factors limit the ability of ...

On election day, March 31st, the observers of “Uspishna Varta” recorded violations that attract attention by their repeatability and identity in different regions. Such violations on election day had an “iceberg effect” because they were the result of technologies implemented throughout the campaign and significantly influenced the will of the citizens. The result of their use was a decrease in the competitiveness of the election and a controlled vote in support of the current president, Petro Poroshenko, which allowed him to progress to the second round of the election. Following the observation of the electoral process during January-March 2019, the observers of “Uspishna Varta” identified a number of violations and technologies, which significantly affected the results of the expression of will and represent a significant danger from ...

On January 18th 2019, the "Uspishna Varta" human rights platform received permission from the Central Election Commission (hereinafter - the CEC) to have its official election observers. Observation is carried out via the work of more than 100 long-term and short-term observers in constituencies; interviews with representatives of candidate headquarters, election commissions, the media community, and the public sector; the collection of information from public sources of information. This report was formed following the results of observation for the period of 1st-28th March 2019 in order to inform the Ukrainian and international community about the course of the electoral process in Ukraine and violations that may affect the free will of citizens and the election's result.