Ukraine is a republic, which is under a mixed semi-presidential semi-parliamentary system with separate executive, legislative, and judicial branches. People of the country elect the President by popular vote for a 5-year term. The President is the formal head of state.
The country’s legislative branch includes the Verkhovna Rada (450-seat unicameral parliament), which is primarily responsible in forming the Cabinet of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister and the executive branch.
The Constitutional Court may abrogate laws, presidential decrees, acts of the cabinet and the parliament, as well as the Crimean parliament if they are found to infringe the Constitution of Ukraine. Some normative acts are bound by judicial review.
In Ukraine, the Supreme Court is the primary body in the general jurisdiction system’s courts. Officially, local self-government is guaranteed. City mayors and local councils are popularly elected and have control over local budgets. On the other hand, the president appoints the heads of district and regional administrations.
The country has many political parties, most of which have little memberships and are largely unfamiliar to the general public. In some cases, small parties join in electoral blocs (multi-party coalitions) to participate in parliamentary elections.
Kiev’s municipality has a special legal status within the country, unlike other administrative districts in Ukraine. One significant difference is that the capital is directly under the national-level branches of the Ukranian government, skipping Kiev Oblast’s regional level authorities.
In addition, municipal institutions, the Mayor of Kiev, and the Head of City Administration (a directly elected person holds the leading executive position and also the Head of City Council) have a higher level of self-governance than elsewhere in the country.
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