Chernihiv discussed electoral reform in Ukraine
Chernihiv discussed electoral reform in Ukraine
On November 14, 2011, a public discussion of election reform in Ukraine was held in Chernihiv.
The event was organized by the public consortium of election initiatives, which brought together profile public organizations dealing with the problems of election legislation and election processes. The partner of the event in Chernihiv was the Polissya Fund of International and Regional Research.
The discussion was attended by about 40 experts representing authorities, political parties, public organizations and the media of the region.
According to Gennady Maxak, the head of the Polissya Fund, “> The purpose of such discussions is to attract the widest range of civil society experts, as well as representatives of all stakeholders in the process of reforming electoral legislation, creating conditions for establishing effective dialogue between legislators, public experts, and elections.
The program coordinator of “Laboratory Initiatives Laboratories” Andriy Kohut (Kyiv) informed the audience about the peculiarities of election bills that are currently under consideration by the Verkhovna Rada. The shortcomings of the draft law No. 9565-1 were also identified, around which the main discussions are being taken.
Yevgeny Romanenko, the head of the Polissya Fund Analytical Department, presented data from a nationwide expert survey, which was attended by more than 500 experts that their vision of the basic provisions of electoral legislation.
In their reports, Chernihiv experts drew attention to some problematic places of reforming electoral legislation. Thus, the deputy chairman of the Chernihiv Regional Organization of the Ukrainian People’s Party, Serhiy Solomakha, has touched the issue of formation of election commissions: “The existing system of formation of commissions is not able to ensure the protection of voter will. This was shown especially by the last local elections of 2010, when all commissions were fully controlled by a party of power through the transfer of quota to local party leaders from the NSU-NS Bloc and BYuT of the Party of Power. ” Pavel Pushchenko, the head of the Chernihiv Educational Center “Initiative”, noted that it is necessary to determine first of all in the basic approaches to the election system before talking about individual procedural elections to the Verkhovna Rada. The return of “majority”, as part of the electoral model proposed by the authorities, is not effective. At the same time, he gave an example of the election of Alexander Yaroslavsky during the intermediate elections to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in 2003. Oleksandr Lomako, a political expert, emphasized the need for active involvement of the Third Sector in monitoring the implementation of election programs and involving international organizations in this process. In addition, he stated that the project standards contain significant gaps that contribute to the emergence of a potential administrative resource on media, independent candidates for deputies, etc. The head of the regional branch of the Civic Position Party Alexander Melnyk said that in the existing political context, the best election system will be proportional. In this case, the presence of open lists is not a decisive factor.
Representatives of political parties and public organizations also joined the discussion, expressing their vision of the influence of the administrative resource on the course and results of the elections-2012, features of voting on open lists and advantages and disadvantages of “majority”. In particular, Yuri Paperny, an independent political observer, noted that the most important thing that needs lobbying is clearer procedures, technical moments. Ruslan Voloshchuk, a deputy of Desnyanskaya in Chernihiv district council, proposed to increase the status of electoral legislation to constitutional and a minimum of 300 votes, which would allow to avoid frequent changes in electoral norms. Such conditions should be eliminated.
All thoughts during the event will be included in the general analytical report on the results of public discussions, which will be submitted to the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, other interested institutions and persons.
Public consortium of election initiatives
Contact person:
Polissya Fund of International and Regional Research,
Yevgeny Romanenko,
Tel.: 661-127, e-mail: Ero@bigmir.net
The project is carried out within the framework of the project “Promoting further strengthening of election processes in Ukraine” with the financial support of the European Union and with the assistance of the OSCE Project Coordinator in Ukraine.