You're reading: Court bans simultaneous running for parliament in single-member districts and under party lists

The Constitutional Court of Ukraine has declared unconstitutional a provision of the law on the election of people's deputies, which allowed the simultaneous running for parliament in single-member constituencies and under party lists.

This is stipulated in the court ruling that was issued on April 5 and made public on Tuesday, April 10.

The court ruled unconstitutional a provision of Part 5, Article 52 of the law, under which the same person may be put on an electoral list of candidates for deputies from a certain party and nominated in a single-member constituency either through nomination by a party or through self-nomination.

The court also declared unconstitutional the provisions of Paragraph 2, Part 10, Article 98 and Part 3, Article 99, under which the Central Election Commission, while determining the results of the vote in a multi-member national electoral district and single-member districts, if the same person is elected an MP under a party list and in a single-member constituency, considers him elected in a single-member constituency, while under the party list, instead of him, it recognizes as elected the next candidate on the list.

As reported, on February 24, the Constitutional Court received a motion from 51 MPs regarding the possibility of simultaneously running for parliament in single-member constituencies and under party lists. The document concerned the constitutionality of the provisions of Part 5, Article 52, Paragraph 2, Part 10, Article 98 and Part 3, Article 99 of the law on the election of people’s deputies of Ukraine.

The provision on simultaneous running for parliament in single-member districts and under party lists was one of the points of the compromise agreements reached between the parliamentary majority and the opposition, owing to which the new wording of the law on the election of people’s deputies was adopted.

However, the Constitutional Court, in its ruling of February 26, 1998, declared unconstitutional the provision of the law on parliamentary elections, according to which the same person was granted the right to be included in the list of candidates for deputies from political parties or electoral blocs of parties for participation in the elections in a multi-member nationwide district and simultaneously be nominated in a single-member constituency.