On 28-29 January, a discussion on prospects of election law reforming in Ukraine was held in Strasbourg. Participants: Secretary of the Venice Commission Thomas Markert, Special Advisor to the Council of Europe Secretary General Christos Giakoumopoulos, and expert of the Venice Commission Serhii Kuznetsov. Participants from Ukraine: Olha Aivazovska (Civil Network OPORA), Yevhen Radchenko (Internews-Ukraine), Denys Kovryzhenko (International Foundation for Electoral Systems), and Oleksandr Chernenko, MP affiliated in the Petro Poroshenko Block and co-Head of the Subcommittee on Elections and Referendums.
Representatives of the Venice Commission and Ukraine have agreed that reforming of such politically sensitive law should be made openly with all the interested parties involved. Besides that, as long as procedures must be harmonized and due to the possible codification, laws on parliamentary elections and local elections should be developed simultaneously. The corresponding Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine must secure fundamental and democratic law drafting. To reach a consensus on electoral systems and important procedures, it's necessary to attract civic experts, MPs from different parties, and experts of international organizations working on electoral matters.
Representatives of the Venice Commission have emphasized that in the view of experience gained in previous election campaigns, it had already recommended to use a proportional representation electoral system with open lists for parliamentary elections. Besides that, experts of the European Commission for Democracy through Law haven't participated in preparation of recommendations on local elections law. However, commission members and technical experts are interested to take part in development of the law and provide political, expert and other assistance in this reform.
Ukrainian participants of the discussion told about key challenges that emerge during preparation of election laws, including those related to decentralization reform which should be correlated with preparation of the local elections law. The voting process in the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the ATO area remain an acute issue, as long as it's impossible to organize democratic elections there. Thus, it's necessary to think about preparation of a special law on occupied territories, particularly Donbas, or transitional provisions in the laws on local elections and on parliamentary elections.