The ruling factions in the Verkhovna Rada did not expect adoption of the draft electoral code No. 3112-1 in the first reading. The Head of the UKROP political council, MP Taras Batenko has written about in on his Facebook page.
“The MPs from the ruling factions were shocked, because they did not expect an effective vote. In fact, almost all the progressive, democratic part of parliament gave their votes,” he said.
At the same time, the MP has added that UKROP supports the appropriate amendments to the electoral law.
“This is an important instrument to start changing the system that couldn’t be broken by any Maidan. And UKROP, together with other democratic parties, will fight for it!” stressed Taras Batenko.
The representative of UKROP has also explained that the draft electoral code provides denial of the principle of selling districts and the possibility of voting for a particular candidate, and not for a pig in a poke. In addition, the document received approval from the Venice Commission and the Council of Europe.
At the same time, Taras Batenko has stressed that the abolition of the majoritarian system and the introduction of open lists is what most civil society requires. But closer to the evening, the representatives of the authorities have recovered themselves and with the help of their PR consultants have found in the electoral code the so–called “Moscow’s hand” and federalization. The favorite mark was used even though among the authors of the code there is a Parliament’s Speaker Andriy Parubiy.
It is to be recalled that the document that proposes to hold elections to the Verkhovna Rada under a proportional system with open lists was supported by 226 MPs.
