The only goal of a bill of amendments to the presidential election law passed at an extraordinary meeting of the Ukrainian parliament onFeb. 3is to defend democracy and human rights, the Regions Party said in a statement released by its press service on Feb. 4.
"The law on the election of the Ukrainian president does not foresee situations in which commission members representing one of the candidates are absent at the appointed time for the opening of polling stations or the vote count. In such situations, district election commissions are banned from opening polling stations or from starting to count the vote due to the absence of a quorum. The law passed by the Verkhovna Rada on February 3 foresees such a situation and ensures a mechanism for a guaranteed quorum when people are to vote, [and for when] election commissions are to sum up the result of the election," reads the statement.
The party said that such an amendment to the law would come into force if either of the sides participating in the election process recalls its representatives, thereby hindering a compulsory quorum at territorial or district election commissions.
"Such a situation was observed in some regions this week. In Odesa, Donetsk and the Autonomous republic of Crimea, BYT [Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko] representatives refused to attend district election commission meetings to discuss organizational issues for Election Day," reads the statement.
"The historical claim by [Prime Minister and presidential candidate] Yulia Tymoshenko that yesterday’s actions by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on amending the presidential election law to protect the suffrage were undemocratic and undermined the fairness of the election process are nothing but an egregious lie… She will ‘protect’ herself from the effect of this law if she only allows her representatives to attend election commission meetings and fulfill their duties foreseen by the law," the party said.
As reported, on February 3, the Ukrainian parliament adopted a package of amendments to the law on presidential election, excluding a requirement that there be a quorum for election commissions.
The adopted amendments proposed by First Vice-Speaker Oleksandr Lavrynovych of the Regions Party canceled the requirement of a quorum of two thirds of the members of territorial and district election commissions.
In addition, the adopted bill introduced a provision that a member of an election commission can be dismissed only if he is simultaneously replaced by another member proposed by a local council and appointed by a commission of higher level (the previous provision proposed replacing the dismissed member with another nominee from the same presidential candidate).
In addition, one of the reasons for the dismissal of a member of a district or territorial election commission (Article 30 of the election law) is "the failure to appear at the meeting of the election commission on the day of voting."
Article 85 of the law on the presidential election is supplemented with a clause saying that if a candidate for Ukraine’s president fails to submit a specified number of his nominees as members in a district election commission on time, the CEC will form this district commission of 14 people (seven representatives from each of the candidates), who will be proposed by the chairman of the regional council.
If a presidential candidate fails to submit his nominees for members of territorial election commissions on time, a relevant district election commission will form the territorial commission of 16 people (eight representatives from each candidate) proposed by the chairman of the local council.
The election commissions will be formed likewise if the number of nominees submitted by the candidates is less than that required by the law.
