On 20 April, the Central Scientific Experts Office (CSEO) has published it's opinion on the draft Law of Ukraine on Making Amendments to Some Laws of Ukraine (concerning electoral rights of internally displaced persons and other internal mobile citizen groups), co-authored by experts of the Civil Network OPORA. In general, the opinion concludes that the bill #6240 can be adopted based on the first reading results with consideration of CSEO's remarks.
“The Central Scientific Experts Office approves the possibility of registering a voting address based on a factual residence address, as long as such approach will facilitate the realization of citizen voting rights. Taking into consideration that the State Register of Voters is being constantly maintained by the corresponding subdivisions of the state apparatus, there are should be no obstacles in realization of the draft law,” – the opinion says.
Besides that, the CSEO mentions that is has no objections concerning the mechanism of changing the voting address based on personal appeal of a voter. It should be mentioned that authors of the bill provided the voters with an opportunity to appeal to a State Voter Register maintenance body any time between the elections, but not later than the fifth day of the electoral process. Thus, State Voter Register maintenance bodies will be less burdened during the election process, situation in electoral constituencies will be more stable and the Voter list will be better prepared. However, experts of the Central Scientific Experts Office believe it would be reasonable to allow changing the election process during the whole electoral process, without limitation to its fifth day.
Besides that, they also believe there are discrepancies in the regulation concerning the deadline for filing appeals by the voters. “We would like to draw your attention to discrepancies in regulations of new paragraphs 3 and 14 of Article 20. It is said that a voter may submit an appeal to a Register maintenance body not later than the fifth day after the beginning of the election process (paragraph 3) and such appeal is prohibited at the same time (by paragraph 14) “if a voter appeals to a Register maintenance body, mentioned by the paragraph 13 of this article, for the change of his election address and the election of the President of Ukraine, MPs of Ukraine, local elections, national or local referendum has already started, the election address of such voter cannot be changed until the corresponding election process finishes,” – says the opinion.
According to the analyst of the Civil Network Oleksandr Kliuzhev, the discussion of such an important draft law on the level of Parliament is a good sign. “CSEO's recommendation concerning adoption of the bill in the first reading gives the opportunity for it's comprehensive consideration and improvement after the first reading if it's necessary. Civil Network OPORA, which also monitors activities of the Parliament, has repeatedly emphasized that it's better to consider draft laws thoroughly in several readings, and is interested in a wide expert and parliamentary discussion of the bill #6240. At the same time, we believe that CSEO's remarks concerning discrepancy in new regulations are not quite justified. It should be mentioned that the bill provided the voters with an opportunity to appeal to a State Voter Register maintenance body any time, but not later than the fifth day of the electoral process. At the same time, a voter who has already changed his voting address, can not change it repeatedly, if the election process has started at the given territory. We do not see any discrepancies here. On the contrary, we believe that this regulation will promote a conscientious selection of an election address,” – the expert stated.
We remind that the bill #6240 was registered in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on 27 March 2017. This document suggests amendment of the Law of Ukraine on the State Register of Voters, Law on the Rights and Freedoms of Internally Displaced Persons, and Law on Local Elections, goaled to guarantee voting rights of internally displaced persons and other mobile groups in the country.
The bill was developed by experts of the Civil Network OPORA AUNGO, Hrupa Vplyvu Civil Holding NGO, International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), MP of Ukraine, and with participation of representatives from NGOs Donbass SOS, Human Rights Information Center, Crimea SOS, the Right for Protection Charitable Foundation, and East-SOS Charitable Fund. Besides that, members of the Interdepartmental Working Group on improvement of IDPs human rights legislation under the Ministry of Temporarily Occupied Territories and IDPs Affairs (including representatives of UN Refugee Agency and the Council of Europe) also participated in discussion of the draft law.
24 MPs have put their signatures under the draft law, namely Hryhorii Nemyria, Mustafa Naiiem, Svitlana Zalishchuk, Refat Chubarov, Mustafa Dzhemiliev, Ostap Yednak, Hanna Hopko and others. There are both unaffiliated and faction representatives among co-authors of the bill: Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction – 11 MPs, People's Front – 2, AUU Batkivshchyna – 3, Opposition Bloc –2, Radical Party of Oleh Liashko – 1, Samopomich –1, unaffiliated or non-group – 4. Thus, the bill has more chances to be adopted since it is already widely supported by MPs. It should be mentioned, that regional representation of MPs who signed it is also quite wide: city of Kyiv, Donetsk, Lviv, Zakarpattia, Chernihiv, Vinnytsia, Rivne, Cherkasy oblasts and the AR of Crimea.
Besides that, a petition was sent to the Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andrii Parubii on 13 April, asking to send this document for consideration of the Venice Commission for assessment and preparation of its opinion on whether the draft law conforms to international principles and standards. It was signed by MPs co-authors of the draft law #6240 Hryhorii Nemyria, Valerii Patskan, Refat Chubarov, Heorhii Lohvynskyi, Iryna Lutsenko, Hanna Hopko, Svitlana Zalishchuk, Mustafa Naiiem, Oleksii Riabchyn, Nataliia Veselova, Oleksandr Chernenko, Viktoriia Ptashnyk and others.