The Committee on Organization of State Government, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Planning starts to consider amendments to the Election Code on the next week. Deputy Head of the Servant of the People Oleksandr Korniienko announced this on 6 May briefing.
He said the discussion will be open and inclusive with the involvement of experts, including the Civil Network OPORA and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems.
"In the next two or three weeks, we will make a plan of amendments to the Election Code, introduce them into the hall, discuss and adopt them by the end of June. And, in fact, the Parliament will realize its constitutional function before the mid-July, and call local elections where the Parliament does it. In other subjects of the newly-created communities, the CEC will do it," - Mr. Korniienko said.
He also added that there are amendments, including technical ones, which are necessary to hold elections. Another package of amendments, political ones, concerns lowering the threshold for party elections, as well as lowering state expences on advertising.
"Still, we need to move towards increased influence of parties in the country. We have been insisting on this for a long time, we have state party financing, and parties should go lower than oblast-level, into cities and small towns. As for village and settlement councils, there will be a multi-member majority with on opportunity of independent nomination," - Mr. Korniienko said.
We would like to remind that OPORA had called on the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the VRU Committee on Organization of State Government, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Planning, to return to and intensify the electoral reform, and prepare the legislation to regular local elections in Ukraine, as long as the last public and expert discussion of amendments to the Election Code took place in the Committee on March 10, and stopped once the epidemiological situation has worsened.
Representatives of the Civil Network OPORA, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the OSCE Project Coordinator in Ukraine prepared a joint statement urging the Parliament to continue working on the Election Code with experts, international organizations and other stakeholders involved.
Besides that, OPORA and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) prepared a Roadmap for reforms in the field of elections, referendums and political financing for 2020. The map contains key recommendations to the Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Supreme Court, the National Police of Ukraine, and the Central Election Commission on the improvement of current legislation.