18 June 2010, 15:45
Opening the meeting, Yurii Kliuchkovskyi, Deputy Chairman, Head of the Working Group in charge of drafting the Electoral Code of Ukraine, greeted the attendants from the Council of Europe. He declared that the working group had enjoyed a permanent support on the part of the Council of Europe and other international organizations.
Delivering a speech, Professor Gerard Marcou, CoE expert, stated that the European Charter of Local Self-Government offered a clear-cut, but unspecific definition of the local elections.
He believes that the proportional election system should be based on a powerful system of parties. "Ukraine currently lacks this system: there are nearly 200 parties in the country, so it would be the best to use majoritarian system in the multi-mandate districts by open ballots so that the voters will receive a ballot and choose the names of candidates. The second round of elections shall be held if neither candidate gets 50% of votes", the expert stated.
The speaker criticized candidacy lists as the confirmation of voters´ support and serious stand of the candidate.
Diane Bunyan, CoE expert, focused on the gender aspect of the Draft Code. She deems necessary to allocate at least 40% of places in the electoral commissions to the representatives of one gender.
Summing up the discussion, Yurii Kliuchkovskyi focused on the most debatable issues of the electoral legislation.