MPs agreed on proportional system of elections

New rules of the election game will allow many deputies to retain their seats in the parliament

Photo: Ivan Chernichkin

Factions of the Verkhovna Rada agreed to make amendments to the electoral legislation so that the early elections scheduled for October 26 would be held exclusively according to the proportional system. In order to garner votes in support of the amendments the former parliamentary coalition agreed to lower the 3% threshold for parties. This concession gives the Party of Regions and the Communist Party of Ukraine good chances of winning seats in the new parliament.

Back to 2007

Yesterday a closed session of the conciliatory council of leaders of VR factions was held during which deputies made an effort to agree on the functioning of the parliament in the near future. After the session leader of the Batkivshchyna faction Serhiy Sobolev told journalists about the agreement of all factions to make amendments to election laws. «All representatives of the factions unanimously agreed to the need to reinstate the proportional election system based on open lists,» he said. Noteworthy, Sobolev is the author of two bills on proportional elections based on open lists, but earlier they did not gain enough votes to put them up for consideration in the parliament.

Vice Chair of the Batkivshchyna faction Dmytro Shlemko informed that at the moment there is no final version of the new bill on amendments to electoral legislation — this document will be ready by today’s morning. But there is an agreement about certain novelties, namely permitting electoral blocs to run in the elections and lowering the threshold for parties to 3% from the current 5%. «The final document will be submitted for voting in the first half of today’s or Wednesday’s morning,» said Shlemko. He added that the majority of deputies are prepared to support the new rules of elections, including members of the PoR factions and the deputy groups «Sovereign European Ukraine» and «Economic Development».

People’s deputy Mykhailo Chechetov of the PoR told Capital that his faction will make a final decision on amendments to election laws before today’s session of the VR. «From the vantage point of team play, the introduction of a proportional system is beneficial for the party as the parliament will have a more cohesive and disciplined team,» Chechetov hinted on the possible support of the initiatives of Sobolev.

A source of Capital in the PoR faction confirmed that the faction may support Sobolev’s bill. He said the lowering of the threshold and having the chance to form a joint bloc with former party colleagues is to its advantage.

First of all, this is about the Strong Ukraine party led by Serhiy Tihipko and the Development of Ukraine Party, which former head of the Presidential Administration Serhiy Lyovochkin is developing.

People’s deputy Valeriy Karpuntsov (UDAR) told Capital that his faction is also ready to support the transition to a proportional system of voting and the opening of party lists. Leader of the Svoboda party Oleh Tyahnybok also announced his support of the bill on Facebook.

As a reminder, the threshold for winning seats in the early elections to the parliament in 2007 was 3%. As a result five parties and blocs had won the seats in the parliament.

Pre-election mirage

Shlemko told Capital how the open electoral lists will look according to the version of the Batkivshchyna party. Specifically, the Central Election Commission should approve 450 constituencies in which each party is allowed to nominate its own candidate. Each of them will have a place on the electoral list according to the ratings of votes in the constituencies. This means that the more votes that are given to the party, the higher will be its place on the list. «This is a stimulus for every candidate to work hard to gain as many votes as possible in the constituency,» Shlemko is convinced.

Of course, candidates may count on winning no higher than 11th place as the top 10 on the party list is formed independently by its leadership. Yet another obstacle to candidates is that a place on the list must be approved by the congress and only after that an electoral document will be submitted to the CEC for registration.

General Director of the Voters Committee of Ukraine Oleksandr Chernenko called the proposed electoral system «an illusion of open lists». «Officially it is said that through their own votes the electorate will determine the places of the candidates on the lists. A candidate is put on the list according to the number of votes gained. In the end, the party congress, meaning the leadership of any given political force, will have the last word.»

Chernenko also believes that inclusion of the norm on blocs in the bill was done so that the document would get the approval of the president, who lobbied for the blocs, and of deputies in his inner circle.