28 September 2011 in Kyiv was held a press conference of Public Consortium of Election Initiatives on the theme "A year before the elections of People’s Deputies of Ukraine – legislative and political threats to the democratic elections”, participated by Olha Aivazovska (Civil Network OPORA), Svitlana Kononchuk (Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research), Viktor Kylymar (Website "Elections in Ukraine") and Oleksandr Chernenko (the Committee of Voters of Ukraine).
On the press-conference were presented results of all-Ukrainian expert poll concerning the electoral legislation in Ukraine, participated by 560 experts from 22 regions of Ukraine. Experts also mentioned problematic issues of submitted bills on the elections of the People's deputies and specified main threats to future democratic elections.
“Exactly in a year Ukrainians will go to polling stations, - stated on the press conference the Head of the Board of CVU Oleksandr Chernenko, - but already today we have unfavorable prognosis concerning democratic and competitive side of the future electoral process. Our pessimism is based predominantly on the analysis of the bill on the elections of People’s Deputies, introduced by the parliamentary majority and with a high degree of probability will be adopted soon. Untransparent process of its development as well as its qualitative content doesn’t hold up for many reasons. Even if we don’t go into particulars, it is obvious that certain statements of the bill contradict the Constitution of Ukraine, and electoral system proposed by it doesn't come from a consensus and the dialogue between the public and the politicians."
Head of the board of the Civil Network OPORA Olha Aivazovska named introduction of the bill by the majority of deputies "openly provocative": “Although in the explanatory note to the document is mentioned, that the bill is written by the working group established by the president, the number of important provisions significantly differ from the original source. Therefore, the Venice Commission estimated not the draft bill that is to be considered by the Verkhovna Rada. Essential changes also concern issues of possible cancellation of candidates’ registration, the possibility to be candidate in single majority and multy-mandate constituencies at the same time, inaccuracies in the requirements to the district division. The People’s Deputies, which we have never seen on the meeting of working group, disregard the text approved by the President, because it was he who should approve the document."
The correspondent of the website "Elections in Ukraine" Viktor Kylymar in his presentation of the expert poll noted: “Our poll is unique because for the first time in Ukraine were questioned so many experts that are directly involved in the electoral process: representatives of political parties, current and former members of election commissions, politologists, law researchers, journalists. The results of the poll showed that only quarter of the expert community supports mixed electoral system, which is proposed by the parliamentary majority, while almost 40% of experts support regional open-list voting system.”
Full results of the poll you can find on the Website "Elections in Ukraine".