15:16 14.09.2019

Zelensky vetoes election code passed by eighth convocation Rada

2 min read
Zelensky vetoes election code passed by eighth convocation Rada

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has returned the Election Code passed by the Verkhovna Rada of the eighth convocation to parliament with his remarks.

"On September 13, 2019 is returned with the proposals of the president," a posting on the website of the Rada said in relation to bill No. 0978.entitled "Proposals of the President to the Election Code of Ukraine."

According to Zelensky's proposals, "the Code that has been sent for signing by the president, contains provisions that do not comply with the Constitution of Ukraine, do not take into account the latest positive changes in the election legislation aimed at improving it, are not consistent with legislative acts that are basic in the relevant field, do not provide proper regulation and organization of the electoral process, effective control over the implementation of electoral procedures."

The head of State on 11 pages gave 17 remarks to the Code. In particular, Zelensky said that, the Code, which provides for a proportional electoral system in the Rada with open regional lists, "provides grounds for concluding that the component characteristic of a proportional electoral system with closed lists is actually retained."

"So, Part 1 of Article 353 of the Code stipulates that a political party that gains 5% or more of valid votes is guaranteed to receive 10 MP mandates, distributed in order of priority in accordance with the state-approved list endorsed by the party, and not depending on the number of votes, received by each candidate of the respective party, in fact, offsets the will of the voter and guarantees the passage of candidates to parliament, regardless of the results of the personalized voting in the elections," the president said.

In addition, "it is allowed to vote not for a particular candidate from a political party, but for a party's electoral list," and the mandates between party candidates at the regional level are distributed only within whole parts after dividing the number of votes cast in a constituency in support of the corresponding regional electoral list, by the electoral quota, while the fractional parts of such division remain for distribution at the national level on the basis of "closed lists."

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