You're reading: Top 10 facts about Oct. 25 municipal elections in Ukraine

Ukraine’s elections on Oct. 25 are the nation’s next democratic step in choosing its leaders following last year’s EuroMaidan Revolution that sent President Viktor Yanukovych fleeing.

Voters will elect mayors and other local officials who will get more taxing and spending authority as the nation decentralizes power.

Here’s the top facts selected by the Kyiv Post about the upcoming elections.

1. At least 26.7 million voters are eligible to cast their ballots on Oct. 25 in regional and local elections all over Ukraine, excluding Russian- annexed Crimea and embattled Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts; turnout is expected to be more than 60 percent.

2. Voters will elect 10,000 mayors 160,000 members of oblast and local councils.

3. Newly founded administrative units – the so-called 159 merged communities among villages and small towns – will also elect their council members and heads.

4. This is procedurally the most complicated local elections Ukraine has ever had. The final results are expected no earlier than on Oct. 28.

5. Elections will be held in majority voting with a constituency system and proportional system with preferential voting.

6. In 35 big cities, second rounds may be necessary if no mayoral candidates receive more than 50 percent of votes. Second-round voting will take place on Nov. 15.

7. A total of 132 political parties have been registered for local elections.

8. Political parties have spent at least $82 million for their campaigns countrywide.

9. Political parties have officially declared only estimated 5 percent of their real campaign expenses. This will change in 2017, when state financing of political parties will be implemented.

10. Elections will be held in 13 big cities and several smaller locations in war-torn Donbas, election officials are unsure how many voters will turn out at polling stations there. Before the war, 7 million voters lived in Donbas.