Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn has said he sees no reason to postpone the next parliamentary elections, as the Constitution of Ukraine determines the date for these elections.
"This can’t be done, unless there’s to be another revolution in Ukraine. The present date of the next parliamentary elections is stipulated by constitutional methods. While introducing amendments to the constitution, the dates of both the next presidential and parliamentary elections were stated. I see no reason to gather 300 votes to cancel a constitutional decision, especially because it would take a year and because it contradicts common sense," Lytvyn said live on Ukrainian television’s Channel 5.
The parliamentary speaker also noted that if MPs failed to make amendments to the law on elections for a year, then it could be canceled, as it isn’t constitutional, and only 226 votes are needed to cancel such a law.
"According to the current law it’s possible to make amendments to the law a year before the elections. But you know well that when [MPs] don’t keep to schedule, then a decision to cancel the corresponding law can be accepted. Especially if this norm isn’t a constitutional one, and 226 votes are enough to achieve [it’s cancellation]," Lytvyn said.
"I think we have to know the rules of the game beforehand. They [the rules] should be simple and clear, not [just] for politicians, but more importantly for the public. The public have to be allowed to make a personal choice and have the possibility to control MPs: A closed party system is unacceptable for us, since it depersonalizes deputies and correspondingly depersonalizes and degrades the role of the Verkhovna Rada, while the role of political parties grows excessively, and in particular [the roles of] the leaders of political parties, causing a contraction of the democratic forces in parliament," he said.
