Civil Network OPORA calls on Ukrainian Parliament to repeal the Law on exclusion of MP candidates from electoral lists due to the gross violation of citizen constitutional right to elect or be elected as well as of parliamentary procedure rules in the process of its adoption. However, if the Verkhovna Rada refuses to repeal this Law, we call on the President of Ukraine to veto it.
On 16 February, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Law of Ukraine on Amendment of the Law on Elections of People's Deputies of Ukraine (concerning exclusion of MP candidates from an electoral list in multi-mandate district, #3700) through ignorance of parliamentary procedure rules. The resonant bill #3700 was introduced by leaders of five parliamentary factions, Petro Poroshenko Bloc, Solidarity, People's Front, Samopomich Union, AUU Batkivshchyna, and Radical Party of Oleh Liashko. Besides that, the bill #3700 had a record-breaking number of attempts to be included in the agenda from December 2015 to February 2016 (25 votings).
The Law allows removing an MP candidate from an election list after the election results are announced, based on the corresponding decision taken at political party's congress. In other words, when this Law enters into force, parties will be able to change the priority of candidates in electoral lists of parliamentary parties. At the same time, lawmakers have failed to establish the grounds for exclusion of a candidate from electoral list after the election results are announced. Besides that, the Law doesn't provide any procedure for taking the corresponding decision at a party congress.
On 16 February, Ukrainian Parliament violated the Law of Ukraine on Parliamentary Procedure Rules when voted to return the bill for consideration on the same day, and adopted it as a basis and as a whole. “After the first unsuccessful vote on 16 February 2015, the bill was supposed to be rejected with prohibition of the repeated submission for Parliament's consideration at the next two sessions”, – Civil Network OPORA emphasized in its official statement. As long as some MPs had remarks concerning content of the bill, if should have been submitted for the second reading, according to the parliamentary procedure rules.
The Law on exclusion of MP candidates from electoral lists places party interests above political rights of Ukrainian citizens. The chance that candidates may be excluded from the list after the election process violates their right to seek election. The right of voters to elect their representatives is also violated as they vote for the whole list of candidates.
The bill #3700 gives party leaders, in fact, absolute power to reconsider the list of already elected MPs after the election results are announced, what is against recommendations and opinions of international organizations like the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) speaking on inadmissibility of party dictate over elected representatives of the people.
“If the priority changes after election results are announced, it influences the will of the people,” – OPORA says
From the legal perspective, application of the bill #3700 to the current Parliament is questionable. Such attempt displays that faction leaders are politically motivated to lobby for the corresponding bill in order to adjust the legislation to internal party challenges.
Thus, OPORA is convinced that the bill #3700 was adopted contrary to the Parliamentary Procedure Rules, and its regulations are against constitutionality of the election process. Thus, OPORA called on the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to repeal this Law, and on the President of Ukraine to veto it if the Parliament refuses to repeal.
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