On 23 September, the Central Election Commission hosted a meeting between the Chairman of the Commission Oleg Didenko and representatives of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE ODIHR) to observe the local elections on 25 October 2020 led by the Head of Mission Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir. The event was also attended by Deputy Head of Mission Stefan Krause, Bureau Electoral Adviser Kira Castaldo, Bureau analysts Rashad Shirinov, Nadine Haas, Yelena Kovalyova, and Commission members Oksana Boyarchuk, Andriy Gevko and Pavlo Lyubchenko.

The Head of the Monitoring Mission thanked the CEC for the support of official observers and constructive cooperation with the OSCE / ODIHR. She also informed about the number of long-term and short-term observers, their terms of stay, the Mission's indicative work program, in particular, and the peculiarities of preparation of interim and final reports on the results of local election observation in Ukraine.

During further communication, the Chairman of the Commission spoke about the peculiarities of preparation for the local elections on October 25, 2020. He also informed about the main changes in the election legislation, in particular, about the new electoral system, which will be followed by local elections. At the same time, Oleh Didenko focused on the active practical participation of the CEC in the process of improving the Electoral Code of Ukraine.

They also talked about the impact of the reform of the administrative-territorial system on the current election process. In particular, about the problems that arose during the formation of election commissions in the new districts. In addition, the Chairman of the Commission informed about the peculiarities of holding elections during the quarantine period, related primarily to measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during voting at polling stations.

At the end of the meeting, Oleg Didenko once again thanked the OSCE / ODIHR and its Monitoring Mission for their attention and interest in the electoral process in our country and assured them of the CEC's full support for their work. "It is very important for us when elections take place with the participation of official observers. We understand perfectly well that the honesty, transparency and openness of elections, and thus trust in their results, depend on this," the CEC Chairman stressed.