Lawmaker Petro Poroshenko, leader of the European Solidarity party, criticized proposals to change voting procedures to allow phone-based voting from basement premises during prolonged air raid alerts, speaking in the Verkhovna Rada.
"Stop this unconstitutional talk about voting by phone from basements. Whoever is afraid should hand in their mandate and get out of parliament. Carry out your constitutional duties in this session hall, without violating the rules on voting individually, in person, in Ukraine's interests," Poroshenko told parliament on Tuesday.
He said all of Ukraine lives and works under shelling, and lawmakers must fulfill their duties in the same way.
Poroshenko also called on lawmakers to support, in its second reading on Tuesday, bill No. 15397 on the construction of shelters, submitted earlier by European Solidarity lawmakers and passed in its first reading on Aug 19, "to ensure the Ukrainian people have shelters."
As previously reported, the Verkhovna Rada's administrative office prepared premises and developed an alternative voting method for lawmakers to use during prolonged air raid alerts, parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk said on Aug 31.
He said lawmakers will be offered the option, if an air raid alert is declared, to move within 10 minutes to a conference hall on level -1 and adjoining premises, which are already equipped for plenary sessions. Workstations for 368 lawmakers have already been set up there, with the capacity to expand to 392 (an additional 31 seats). The hall also has a podium and a round table where, according to the parliament speaker, committee chairs, bill sponsors and those wishing to speak will be seated. The hall and adjoining premises are also equipped to broadcast sessions.
On the voting process itself, lawmakers will be offered two options: voting by show of hands, or through a specially developed online system, which journalists were able to test during a media event. The online system allows users to view the agenda, cast votes and check results, as well as sign up to speak and check the speaking queue.
According to Vyacheslav Shtuchny, head of the Rada's administrative office, development of the voting system began at the start of the full-scale invasion. It is part of the Rada's automated system and has passed all necessary checks by the State Service for Special Communications.
Stefanchuk stressed that under Rada rules, sessions must be held in the Verkhovna Rada building at 5 Mykhaila Hrushevskoho St., with voting itself conducted in person. "From a technological standpoint, we've done everything we can to offer an alternative, so that during an alert, lawmakers don't just go down to the shelter, but go down to the shelter to work," he added, stressing that this is only an additional option for holding sessions during an alert, and that sessions will otherwise continue to be held in the main hall as before.
