Volodymyr Lytvyn, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, believes that introduction of the electoral threshold for political parties is impractical in the context of the mixed electoral system.
Volodymyr Lytvyn, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, made this statement, meeting Thorbjørn Jagland, Council of Europe Secretary General.
V. Lytvyn informed that the Parliament was working upon the draft Electoral Code which was positively appreciated by the Venice Commission. Several provisions of this document need compromise decisions in part of election system, procedure of election committees formation, and voting returns.
On the initiative of the President of Ukraine, an expert group has been set up to work upon the Law on parliamentary elections, informed the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada. The group includes parliamentarians who have been working upon the Electoral Code.
The Head of the Ukrainian Parliament called for focusing on the issue of the electoral threshold for the parties. "A decision should be made to help form the parliament and provide democratic political structuring of the society", he explained.
According to V. Lytvyn, if the Parliament adopts the decision on a mixed electoral system, the electoral threshold for parties will lose its significance. The Chairman explained that the voting threshold would arrange unequal conditions for the candidates from parties and the candidates to be elected in majority constituencies. As an example, Volodymyr Lytvyn stated that election of a Deputy in a majority constituency needs 60-70 thousand votes, while a three-per-cent barrier means that politicians would need even more than 600 thousand votes. Thus, the party would not be represented in the Parliament. "It is a subject for discussion. However, the rules should be fixed at least a year before the start of the election campaign, remaining unchangeable during the elections", he declared.