13 May 2010, 16:46
Opening the hearings, Volodymyr Lytvyn, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine stated that today there is a common thought that imperfect system of the local self-government elections is the cause of all the problems in Ukraine.
Volodymyr Lytvyn expressed for the Necessity of the Elections Conduction to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine according to the Open Party List System and returning to the Majority System during the Elections to the Local Self-Government Bodies.
For the introduction of the relevant amendments to the legislation, V. Lytvyn expressed on Wednesday opening the parliamentary hearings: "Reformation of the Ukrainian legislation on Local Elections in the Interests of the Territorial Communities."
"To reach the civilized structuralization the political and party sphere, we need returning to the majority system concerning the regional rate in particular, and regarding the Verkhovna Rada the open list system is supposed to be implemented taking into the consideration the reality and reaching a compromise", V. Lytvyn stated.
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine also emphasized that the existing systems of the local elections first of all is a cause of all the present problems and firs of all it should be stressed that such a system does not take into the consideration the interests of the territorial communities. Thus, according to him the development of Ukraine and its future depends on the solution of the existing problems of the local self-government.
"There are people specialized on the formation of the political parties. It is a business for them and before the elections the sell the parties", the Chairman mentioned. "There are a lot of politicians, born actually with a silver spoon in their mouth. They paid parties and now suggest pre-termed elections. It is caused by the fact their sponsors demands this. It is even useless to speck on the price of the places in these lists, they are enormous."
Among ht obvious drawbacks of the existing election system V. Lytvyn also named the mechanisms of proposing as a candidate for the local elections according to the proportional election system. Thus such a a mechanism, according to the Leader of the Parliament does not harmonize with the Constitution of Ukraine as restricts the protected by the clause 38 of the Constitution of Ukraine the right of the citizen to be elected to the local self-government body as its implementation depends upon the decisions of the local organizations, parties and blocks.
V. Lytvyn also named the issue for the disputes on harmonization of the principles of the Constitution of Ukraine with the norms of the Law of Ukraine "On Election of the Deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Autonomous Republic of the Crimea, Local Councils and Village Town and City Mayors", that define the order of the formation of the regional councils that, according to him, restricts the interests of the territorial communities on the rate of village and township.
Under the conditions of the multiparty system, according to the Head of the Parliament, there is only one way of implementation of the preferential voting, that is reduction of the electoral district and quantity of mandates that are to undergo division and quantity of candidates.
After his speech, his opinion expressed Yurii Kliuchkovskii, the Chairman of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on State Building and Local Self-Government. He pointed out the attention on the problems of the authority terms of the local self-government bodies and appointing and conduction of the early local elections as well as on the issue of election systems.
The People´s Deputy emphasised that "elections of each of local self-government bodies are held independently, thus we are supposed to deal with the total scope of the totality of the mutually independent local elections."
"Unequal term of the authorities and not simultaneous election of the council and head of the territorial community in our opinion are not only impropriate but even artificial", Yu. Kliuchkovskii emphasised.
Summing up, the Chairman of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on State Building and Local Self-Government stated that in the results of the discussion and taking into the consideration all the expressed opinions, the Committee will elaborate for the parliamentary scrutiny the bill ion recommendations of the parliamentary hearings that would define the basic tasks for the new revision of the Law "On Local Elections."
Oksana Bilozir, the People´s Deputy of Ukraine, in her speech stressed that there is an obvious evident of the fact that it is necessary to alter the election legislation as there was an appeal to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the First Session of the National Congress of the Local Self-Government, sitting of which was held in Kyiv on 3 February 2010.
Yurii Miroshnychenko, a representative of the President of Ukraine in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in his speech in particular stated that "we have single opinion regarding the necessity of the improvement of the system of elections to the local self-government bodies and the special attention to this issue is paid by the President of Ukraine."
"There is an initiative and it has been actively discussed, the local self-government bodies of the territorial community are supposed to be elected according to the majority system. They are supposed to be elected according to the principle lest the political system of the society is destroyed, though the real representation on the levels of the councils or the chairmen in preserved", the People´s Deputy of Ukraine stated.
Anatolii Matvienko, the People´s Deputies of Ukraine in the course of the discussion emphasised: I am for the majority system, for the preferences for the parties in order to politically structurize our power somehow and increase the rate of its responsibility. Though, I would like to state that if we do not solve the corruption problem, there will be no use of altering the elections system."
In the end of the discussion, Mykola Tomenko, the Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine declared: "I am convinced that we are able to receive first of all the civilized and responsible system of the local self-government and after that - civilized Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine that later would be called with honor Ukrainian Parliament."