On 2 July 2015, Ukraine's Parliament is planning to consider in the second reading the Law of Ukraine on Local Elections. It is important that the reformed Law on Local Elections should regulate participation of internally displaced persons in regular local election.
As a result of military activities in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, more than 1.3 million of Ukrainians were displaced internally.
According to the Article 38 of the Constitution of Ukraine, citizens have the right to participate in public affairs, national and local referendums, freely elect or be elected to state government and local self-government bodies. Article 24 of the Constitution of Ukraine establishes that citizens have equal constitutional rights and liberties, and they are equal before the Law.
Besides that, UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement in the country (1998) prohibiting discrimination of internally displaced persons when it comes to equal participation in community affairs, the right to vote and participate in state and public affairs, and to access resources necessary for implementation of such rights. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has also provided the corresponding recommendations in its Recommendations on internally displaced persons (2006).
On the one hand, Ukrainian government must guarantee implementation of IDPs' voting rights in accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine and internationally recognized standards. On the other hand, election is an important instrument that can facilitate integration of internally displaced persons into their new territorial communities recognizing their rights and obligations after moving to other cities, villages or towns.
A group of MPs in cooperation with NGO representatives has drafted and introduced propositions to the Draft Law of Ukraine on Local Elections, adopted in the first reading on 18 June 2015, which envisage conditions for participation of internally displaced persons in regular local elections (the corresponding propositions and corrections were made by the First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andrii Parubii on behalf of the group). It was proposed to give IDPs an opportunity to change their voting address by submitting a personal application to a Voter Register maintenance body by their factual residence address not later than thirty days before the voting day in national or local elections.
The factual residence address indicated in the IDP registration certificate is suggested to be a new voting address of an internally displaced person. State Voter Register maintenance bodies can apply to a body issuing IDP registration certificates to verify reasons for election address change. Thus, eligible IDP voters who permanently reside in new territorial communities can apply to a voter register maintenance body and receive a real chance to cast vote in October 2015 local elections as well as future nationwide or local elections.
However, such application-based method used for inclusion of IDPs to voter lists has alternative ways of securing their voting rights with consideration of various circumstances of their displacement and personal motivation to integrate into new territorial communities. Such voters will either preserve their current election address or will change it to a new one to vote on a new place of residence.
We call Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to provide legislation that guarantees participation of internally displaced persons in local elections and secure in such a way the equality of citizen constitutional rights; to demonstrate Ukraine's adherence to international standards on IDPs.
At the same time, we would like to draw MPs' attention emphasizing that realization of IDPs' voting rights only on the level of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts or their restriction to temporarily occupied territories not only would prevent equal participation of IDPs in the communities they are currently living in, but also would preserve or worsen this problem. Another issue that should be taken into consideration is that even if Minsk agreements are realized (hypothetically), which envisage participation of illegal armed groups' political representatives in elections held on temporarily occupied territories, IDPs' right to freely elect local self-government bodies can be questioned and will not bear any meaning for this group of voters.
Statement is signed by:
MPs of Ukraine:
- Nataliia Veselova
- Oleksii Riabchyn
- Serhii Taruta
- Oleksandr Chernenko
NGOs:
- Civil Network OPORA
- Donetsk regional branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine All-Ukrainian NGO