Observers of elections held in Ukraine this year from the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO) have recommended Ukrainian authorities to review the requirement of a five-year period of residence in the country for candidates to members of parliament and introduce sanctions for illegal election canvassing.

"ENEMO recommends reviewing the requirement of a five-year residency in Ukraine for a future MP, since international standards, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) and the Venice Commission's Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters (2002) provide that the requirements for candidates should not be excessive and should not violate the rights of citizens to be elected. The requirement of a five-year period of residence contradicts these international standards and seems unnecessarily restrictive," ENEMO political analyst Pierre Peytier said, speaking at a roundtable in Kyiv on Thursday.

According to the final report of the observer mission in the presidential elections in Ukraine, as well as snap parliamentary elections, the observers recommend that it is necessary to better describe cases of candidates who change their last names in the legislation.

The organization was also called on to regulate in legislation the schemes to resolve the situation when, for example, a political party was registered under a court decision after the deadline for registration and after a draw to determine the order of parties on the ballot took place.

In addition, ENEMO recommended increasing the quota for women on party lists, as well as applying effective sanctions for non-compliance with gender quotas.

The observers noticed that sanctions should be provided for early election canvassing, as well as election canvassing on the day of election silence.