Mykola Tomenko: We protected the Right of all Political Parties to stand in Elections
At the today´s briefing at the Parliament, Mykola Tomenko, Deputy Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, commented upon the holding of an extraordinary session to scrutinize the bill on amendments to the Law on the Local Elections. He stated that the long-lasting discussion of this Law "led to several positive conclusions at least."
Thus, in the end of July, Mykola Tomenko, Deputy Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, suggested adjusting the Law on the Local Elections. As the election campaign starts on 11 September, he also suggested holding an extraordinary session in the end of August to start the plenary meeting of 7 September with the introduction of amendments to this Law.
"This suggestion being made, the prominent representatives of the Party of Regions declared that the Law on the Local Elections was perfect and did not need any amendments. They also stated that the initiative on holding an extraordinary session was made by inadequate people ‘overheated in the sun.´ Mykola Tomenko reminded. "I would like to know the response of these deputies from the Party of Regions to the President´s support of our initiative," the Deputy Chairman wondered. M.Tomenko pointed out an interesting fact that the arguments to support introduction of amendments in the explanatory note to the Law drafted by the President´s team are written in the language of the opposition and clearly state that ‘several regulations shall be amended to meet the democratic and international standards´.
According to M.Tomenko, another important achievement is "the demonstration that common efforts can settle a seemingly fantastic problem." He stressed that the BYuT had manifested an important attitude to the current situation, when one shall struggle for the interests of all political parties, not just one´s party interests.
Another substantial attainment is abolition of the regulation on commissions´ formation. Thus, commissions shall include not only representatives of the parties in the parliamentary factions, but also the members of other parties and public organizations.
The Deputy Chairman reminded that the opposition had insisted on considering the proposals of the Central Election Commission, representatives of the territorial election commissions and local self-government. "Unfortunately, a great number of proposals were neglected. However, convocation of an extraordinary session on this issue is still a significant victory of the opposition", he summed up.