Rada was offered to change the electoral legislation: what is foreseen
Kyiv • UNN
Draft law No. 13464 of July 10, proposing amendments to the Electoral Code of Ukraine, has been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada. The document aims to improve the system for conducting elections of people's deputies and local elections, taking into account current realities.
A bill on amendments to the electoral legislation of Ukraine has been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada, UNN reports with reference to a statement on the parliament's website.
Details
This refers to draft law No. 13464 of July 10 on amendments to the Electoral Code of Ukraine.
The authors note that the bill is necessary for holding elections "taking into account the realities of today." They explain that, in the context of elections of people's deputies, due to hostilities or occupation, the number of voters has significantly decreased in some electoral regions, while in others it has increased due to internally displaced persons.
"In this regard (...) it is advisable to consider a proportional approach to determining the number of candidates in regional lists, taking into account the number of voters in each region," the initiators of the bill propose.
Also, among other things, the authors touch upon the issue of open lists. They note that the voter has limited influence on the order of candidates in the regional electoral list.
The purpose of the bill is to "improve" the system of "preparing and holding elections of people's deputies and local elections," "ensuring transparency in the formation of electoral lists and fair distribution of mandates based on real support for candidates among voters."
The project proposes to amend the Electoral Code of Ukraine, which would provide, in particular:
- from among the candidates for people's deputies included in the nationwide electoral list, except for the candidate included under the first number, the party at the same congress forms and approves regional lists of candidates for deputies in each electoral region;
- determining the number of candidates for people's deputies that can be included in the regional electoral list of the party, based on the number of voters in each region;
- when forming the nationwide electoral list, the party must ensure the presence of men and women in each five of the electoral list (at least two candidates of each gender). When forming regional electoral lists, the party must ensure the representation of persons of one gender in each at least 30 percent of the total number of candidates;
- voters' votes cast in the electoral region in support of the party, without supporting a specific candidate for people's deputies, are counted towards the number of voters' votes cast in support of the respective party, which remained unused when distributing deputies' mandates in this electoral region;
- elections of deputies of local councils are held under a proportional representation system with open electoral lists of local party organizations;
- from among the candidates included in the single electoral list, the party organization at the same meeting forms and approves territorial lists of candidates for deputies;
- a person nominated as a candidate for the position of village, settlement, city mayor may simultaneously be nominated as a candidate for deputy to the relevant local council, but not in any other single-mandate electoral districts for any local elections;
- the form of the ballot for elections of people's deputies and local elections is unified;
- candidates for deputies of the local council are placed in the territorial electoral list of the respective party organization in descending order of the number of voters' votes that supported the respective candidate for deputy.