A further delay of the comprehensive election reform in Ukraine can result in political, legal, and financial consequences. Firstly, citizens and experts can lose their confidence in the ruling majority as it fails to adhere to commitments given in the Coalition Agreement which was signed on 21 November 2014. According to the terms of agreement, a new law on parliamentary elections establishing proportional system with open lists must be adopted yet during the 1st quarter of 2015, and the law on local elections must be reformed during the first half-year of 2015. Secondly, the delay in the election law reforming can also spoil Ukraine's image due to the non-observance of international engagements, particularly with the European Union, the Council of Europe, and the OSCE, and hazard the opportunity to receive financial and political support for reforming.
Olha Aivazovska, Electoral and Parliamentary Programs Coordinator at the Civil Network OPORA, has said: "Laws on parliamentary elections and on local elections are the cheapest to be implemented if reformed. However, if there is no political will for reform or attraction of experts, it's not likely to be successful."
Denys Kovryzhenko, legal advisor of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, has emphasized: "We have already witnessed the so-called "election law reform" in 2011 and 2013, when the public and experts were used by the government to legitimize a mixed election system with advantageous regulations. While the time constraints become shorter, the reforming is being discussed behind-the-scenes, nontransparently and with no experts involved, the same way the previous government was acting. Many MPs don't even know how the proportional system with open list works, despite they support its establishment."
The experts called the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to secure implementation of his order to create the Working group on election law reform under the Committee on Judicial Policy and Justice given on 3 February 2015. At the same time, the parliamentary coalition should announce their approach to choosing election systems that will be used in the next parliamentary and local elections, and reach the consensus about the system and main procedures by delegating representatives of their factions to the Working group on election law reform. Participants of the press-conference have emphasized that the VRU Committee on Judicial Policy and Justice should secure open, transparent, and inclusive functioning of the Working group.
Press-service of the Civil Network OPORA
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The Civil Network OPORA - is a non-governmental, non-political and financially independent all-Ukrainian network of activists. We united to enhance public participation in the political process by developing and implementing models of citizen participation in the activities of state and local governments.