Election law reform is a top priority direction for improvement of political system in Ukraine. Five deputy factions of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of VIII convocation have agreed in the Coalition agreement that laws on parliamentary and local elections should be urgently amended. Main political players have reached a consensus regarding a proportional system with open lists for parliamentary elections and have partly agreed on the system for local elections.
There are tens types of proportional system with open lists used in the world practice. In addition to the fact that each type has its pluses and minuses, they all cause a number of challenges related to election administration, financing, organization of the vote tabulation and determination of election results, raising citizen awareness about the voting procedures etc.
Thus, open consultations involving politicians, domestic and international experts, civic activists, members of the Central Election Commission, and the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) should be organized before making a choice in favor of one or another system for future parliamentary and local elections. Election systems with open lists have procedures for voting, vote tabulation and determination of election results that are new for Ukrainian citizens. Thus, large-scale awareness campaigns should be organized for the voters and potential commission members. In order to take into consideration interests of the citizens, society, politicians and experts, and to assess all the risks and consequences of innovations, election law reform should be open, transparent, and inclusive.
The undersigned non-governmental organizations call the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Hroisman to issue the Committee on Judicial Policy and Justice and order to create a working group for the development of draft laws on parliamentary and local elections. The group should contain MPs of Ukraine, independent civic experts, the CEC, and official representatives of the President's Administration. It's essential to reach political consensus on electoral systems and procedures on the stage of law drafting, than all political subjects will be responsible for the content and results of the reform.
Internews-Ukraine, Committee of Voters of Ukraine, Civil Network OPORA and the Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research call:
- The President of Ukraine and Government to promote the reform in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and provide political and professional support to the Parliament at all stages of election law reform;
- Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to create a Working group on election law reform under the Committee on Judicial Policy and Justice;
- VRU Committee on Judicial Policy and Justice to secure transparent, open, and inclusive activities of the Working group on election law reform, and duly administer the process that should be finished not later than April 2015;
- Parliamentary factions to delegate representatives to the Working group on election law reform and secure their active participation in efforts of the group aimed to form a political consensus on the content of electoral reform;
- Experts, non-governmental organizations, and activists to actively participate in the election law reforming process, attend meetings of the Working group on election law reform, direct the efforts at voter awareness, promulgation of the content, goals, and consequences of the reform between journalists, regional experts and activists.