The Green Party of Ukraine statement on the law of Ukraine on "Elections to national and local councils elections in Ukraine"

State election law reflects the overall level of democracy. Unfortunately, the draft new Law on elections, prepared by a working group headed by the Minister of Justice, does not bring the highest democraticy standards to Ukraine.

Restoration of mixed electoral system will not be the best alternative for today's state of affairs: the newly elected parliament will still lack responsibility for the decisions that it had made. The flaws of this system clearly revealed themselves during the parliamentary cadences 1998-2002 and 2002-2006 years, in fact, that had led to its abandonment.

Local citizents will still not be able to contact or influence the deputies that they had elected, thus the Law do not provide them with such tools. Local elections do not deffinately mean that the will of one hundred and fifty thousand (!) voters had been taken into accout on the highest national level. The most successful it can be done be introducing the so-called "open lists" provided the proportional electoral system.

The new law also does not reflect the urgent need to introduce mechanisms of individual responsibility to voters, including effective mechanism to recall.

Intend to raise the election barrier does not correlate with the principles of democracy either. Increasing the barrier means redistribution of voters share cast for parties in favor of party-winners. Solving this problem might be limitation to increase the barrier or even reject it.

The existence of cash collateral for the right to participate in elections is the actual installation unacceptad in a democratic society. Its size today is unsustainable burden for the vast majority of political parties in Ukraine, and in conjunction with the provisions of the draft Law, which deprive political parties of the right to block the formation and campaigning partly at state expense, even the act of transforming people's will to win oligarchs.

Priority formation of district election commissions parties that have formed factions at the first session of the Verkhovna Rada of the current convocation, also does not meet the democratic principle of equality.

These and other critical evaluation, expressed as different political forces and independent experts, not taken into account by the working group. Meanwhile, changing the electoral law is not a narrow issue and should be carried out in a constant open dialogue with civil society.

Green Party of Ukraine requires lawmakers to take into account all critical assessments and not to vote for innovations that do not meet either national interests, nor the practice of European democracies.

• Green Party
• election law

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