2020 Cherkasy regional election

The 2020 Cherkasy regional election was held on 25 October 2020, to elect the 8th Oblast Council. All 64 deputies were up for election, decreased from 84 in 2015. The elections were held simultaneously with local elections in Kyiv and twenty-four other oblasts throughout Ukraine.

2020 Cherkasy regional election

25 October 2020
All 64 seats in the Cherkasy Oblast Council 33 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	35.27% (11.88pp)
First party Second party Third party   SN Leader Anatolii Pidhornyi Serhii Lisovyi Anton Yatsenko Party Cherkashchany SN ZM Last election 16 seats, 15.54% New New Seats won 18 12 12 Seat change 2 New New Popular vote 67,002 45,338 42,663 Percentage 21.41% 14.49% 13.64% Swing 5.87pp New New   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   B OPZZh Leader Roman Sushchenko Yurii Trenkin Volodymyr Domanskyi Party YeS Batkivshchyna OPZZh Last election 18 seats, 17.54% 13 seats, 12.53% New Seats won 9 7 6 Seat change 9 6 New Popular vote 33,461 24,057 19,686 Percentage 10.69% 7.69% 6.29% Swing 6.84pp 4.84pp New
Election result by constituency
Head of the Oblast Council before election Anatolii Pidhornyi Cherkashchany Elected Head of the Oblast Council Anatolii Pidhornyi Cherkashchany

Cherkashchany became the largest party in the Oblast Council, with Servant of the People and For the Future coming second and third respectively, with 12 seats both. European Solidarity, previously called Petro Poroshenko Bloc, was the biggest party in the council in 2015, but fell to fourth place with just 9 seats. Radical Party of Oleh Liashko and Svoboda fell below the 5% threshold and lost their representation.

Electoral system

These were the first elections held under the newly adopted Electoral Code, which provided a fully proportional electoral system at the both local and national levels.

Each party had to form two lists: the first is united for the entire city, and the second is for individual territorial districts. The party would receive a mandate if it overcomes the 5% threshold. In this case, the No.1 candidate on the list is guaranteed to receive a seat. Candidates who receive 25% or more of the electoral quota of their district get to the top of the list in descending order of the number of votes for them. In the case of an equal number of votes, the order of candidates will remain as determined by the party at the time of voting. After the candidates who passed to the council according to the quota, the rest are placed in the order determined by the party.

Electoral quota is the number of votes needed to obtain one seat. The electoral quota is determined by the territorial election commission. For this, the commission needed to divide the total number of votes for those parties that won at least 5 percent of the voters' votes and are now participating in the distribution of mandates by the number of mandates. The number of seats into which the electoral votes had to be divided is the difference between the number of seats in the council and the number of guaranteed seats for each party that entered the council (one seat per party).

Prior to the election, Cherkasy Regional Territorial Electoral Commission divided the oblast into 7 electoral districts (okruh) with an almost even population, based on existing districts (raion) and Cherkasy, with an unfixed amount of seats.

District	Territory represented
No.1	Cherkasy (Prydniprovskyi)
No.2	Cherkasy (Sosnivskyi)
No.3	Cherkasy Raion
No.4
No.5	Zvenyhorodka Raion
No.6	Uman Raion
No.7	Zolotonosha Raion

Parties and candidates

Below is a list of the main parties which contested the election:

Party			Lead candidate	Ideology	2015 result
					%	Seats
	YeS	European Solidarity Європейська солідарність	Roman Sushchenko	Liberal conservatism	17.54%	18 / 84
	Cherkashchany	Cherkashchany Черкащани	Anatolii Pidhornyi	Localism	15.54%	16 / 84
	Batkivshchyna	Batkivshchyna Батьківщина	Yurii Trenkin	Populism	12.53%	13 / 84
	RPOL	Radical Party of Oleh Liashko Радикальна партія Олега Ляшка	Oleksandr Korniienko	Left-wing populism	10.25%	10 / 84
	Svoboda	Svoboda Свобода	Oleksandr Loshkov	Ultranationalism	7.52%	7 / 84
	PVA	Party of Veterans of Afghanistan Партія ветеранів Афганістану	Serhii Yakymchuk	Veterans' rights	5.01%	5 / 84
	SN	Servant of the People Слуга народу	Serhii Lisovyi	Liberalism	New
	ZM	For the Future За майбутнє	Anton Yatsenko	Economic nationalism	New
	OPZZh	Opposition Platform — For Life Опозиційна платформа – За життя	Volodymyr Domanskyi	Social democracy	New
Not contesting
	Revival	Revival Відродження		Economic nationalism	8.15%	8 / 84
	UKROP	Ukrainian Association of Patriots Українське об'єднання патріотів		Ukrainian nationalism	6.94%	7 / 84

Campaign

Party slogans

Party		Original slogan	English translation	Ref.
	Cherkashchany	«Голосуй за своїх!»	"Vote for your people!"
	SN	«Буде так, як вирішиш ти!»	"It will be the way as you decide!"
	ZM	«Робили, робимо і будемо робити»	"We have done, are doing and will continue to do"
	YeS	«Обирай кращих! Обирай ЄС»	"Choose better ones! Choose YeS"
	Batkivshchyna	«Надійна команда порядних людей!»	"A reliable team of decent people!"
	OPZZh	«Крокуємо до комфортної громади»	"Moving towards a comfortable community"

Debates

Date	Organisers	Moderator(s)	P  Present    S  Surrogate    NI  Not invited   A  Absent invitee
			ChE	SN	ZM	YeS	B	OPZZh	KSR	SiCh	RPOL	NK	H	PVA	SP	S	PRO	Ref.
7 October	UA:Cherkasy	Maryna Denysenko	S Petrenko	NI	NI	NI	P Trenkin	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	P Shmyhol	S Dehteriov	NI	NI	NI
8 October			NI	S Novytskyi	A	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	P Korniienko	P Zviriaka	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI
9 October			NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	P Domanskyi	NI	P Boiechko	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	P Loshkov	A
12 October			NI	NI	NI	S Koval	NI	NI	A	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	S Vysochyn	NI	NI

Opinion polls

Fieldwork date	Polling firm	Sample size												Other	Lead
26 September-2 October 2020	Hromadska dumka	2,400	13.1	11.8	14.4	7.0	—	9.8	19.7	11.6	6.3	—	—	4.7	5.3
10-15 September 2020	Rating	1,600	9.3	8.7	12.1	6.1	2.3	1.7	20.5	21.5	4.9	1.4	3.1	8.5	1.0
6-14 September 2020	Hromadska dumka	2,400	14.8	11.5	17.3	6.7	—	8.1	24.0	—	7.4	—	—	10.3	6.7
25 October 2015	2015 Cherkasy regional election		17.54	15.54	12.53	10.25	7.52	0.99	—	—	—	—	—	35.63	2.0

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Cherkashchany	67,002	21.41	18	+2
	Servant of the People	45,338	14.49	12	New
	For the Future	42,663	13.64	12	+5
	European Solidarity	33,461	10.69	9	–9
	Batkivshchyna	24,057	7.69	7	–6
	Opposition Platform — For Life	19,686	6.29	6	New
	Serhii Rudyk's Team — Time for Change!	14,036	4.49	0	New
	Strength and Honor	10,869	3.47	0	New
	Radical Party of Oleh Liashko	9,164	2.93	0	–10
	Our Land	9,066	2.90	0	0
	Holos	8,478	2.71	0	New
	Party of Veterans of Afghanistan	7,650	2.44	0	–5
	Self Reliance	7,579	2.42	0	New
	Svoboda	7,558	2.42	0	–7
	Proposition	6,278	2.01	0	New
Total		312,885	100.00	64	–20
Valid votes		312,885	91.54
Invalid/blank votes		28,906	8.46
Total votes		341,791	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		969,137	35.27
Source: CEC