Experts warn about the threat of a new bill of law on parliamentary elections
The public forum on election law was held in Kyiv on November 9. It was organized by the Civil Expert Council within the Ukrainian Part of the EU-Ukraine Cooperation Committee, The New Citizen Partnership, and Election Initiatives Public Consortium with support of the European Program of the International Renaissance Foundation.
Experts say a new Bill of Law called “On the election of national deputies of Ukraine” №9265-1 did take into account some minor observations from international institutions, but the key recommendations made by the Venice Commission, IFES and community activists were ignored.
Worse, the final draft of the Bill was expanded with provisions that are in complete violation of international standards. These include depriving voters outside the country of their right to vote in single mandate districts, expanding the grounds for denying the registration of candidates, and more. According to experts, the Bill also makes it possible to corrupt the electoral process at just about any stage and does not guarantee that an election will be run in line with democratic standards.
Among the most controversial points in the latest version of this Bill are returning to the mixed electoral system, raising the threshold for parties and depriving parties of the option of running as a political bloc in elections.
General recommendations to improve the bill:
– ensure that voters in the overseas district outside Ukraine can exercise their full right to vote, as guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine;
– establish that polling stations are to be set up 6 months prior to the official start of the election campaign and require that county and city boundaries are respected in the process, at least for oblast-subordinated cities;
– clearly identify the grounds and procedures for setting up, operating and disbanding all polling stations, including the overseas ones;
– provide for: а) clear, non-discriminatory formation of electoral commissions, for instance, in relation to opposition parties in the legislature and parties that are not represented in it; b) the option for those who have nominated a representative to an electoral commission to withdraw such commission members, along with a list of grounds for such a withdrawal; c) the option to replace a commission member who has been dismissed by another commission member from the same entity that nominated the first candidate to such commission; d) the requirement that electoral commissions pass decisions by an absolute majority of votes based on the entire membership of the commission, while including in the law a mechanism to prevent disrupting commission sessions for lack of a quorum;
– provide the option to withdraw the registration of a candidate for election to the legislature only in those cases where the individual has lost the right to be elected;
– ensure that: a) those who vote off-site have documentary proof of the need to do so; b) those who wish to vote at a polling station that is different from their official address have an absentee voting permit; c) there is a mechanism to get an absentee voting permit and voting with an absentee ballot, as written into the current Law “On electing national deputies of Ukraine;”
– ensure that informational posters about parties and candidates are available at all polling stations;
– establish a suitable security mechanism for overseeing the production and transfer of ballots to electoral commissions to prevent improper use of these ballots;
– enshrine the necessary guarantees that violations of voting rights can be redressed through the courts and electoral commissions, especially by extending the timeframe for submitting and reviewing administrative challenges from 2 to 5 days; ensure the option of declaring the vote at a given polling station invalid if there is evidence of systemic violations that make it impossible to determine the results of the vote; institute effective, dissuasive penalties for violating electoral legislation.
The Civil Expert Council within the Ukrainian Part of the EU-Ukraine Cooperation Committee
Lyubov Akulenko
(+38 044) 254 63 09
liubov.akulenko@gmail.com
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Goal of the European Program is to promote Ukraine’s European integration by providing financial and expert support to relevant civil society initiatives.
