Ukraine parliament fails to approve election reform

Ukraine’s parliament failed to approve on Oct. 19 any
of three bills to reform Ukraine’s election system for the 2019 parliamentary
elections. Among the bills that failed to draw support was legislation endorsed
by the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission to create open-list proportional
voting, which was advocated by the protestors of the tent city outside the
parliament building. A vote failed even to return the Venice-endorsed bill for
further revision.

As for the tent city’s other demands, parliament voted
to send two bills for Constitutional Court’s review that would amend the
Ukrainian Constitution to remove political immunity from MPs. The measures also
scheduled a vote for the bills in the next parliamentary session after the
court’s review. As for legislation to create an independent anti-corruption
court, the president had yet to submit his draft to parliament. Meanwhile, the
activist MPs – led by Yegor Sobolev – agreed to withdraw their bill in favor of
the president’s draft, as recommended by the Venice Commission.

Most of the activist organizations involved in the
tent city protest said they would fight for the legislation by other means, withdrawing
their participation. However, the supporters of Mikheil Saakashvili and MP
Yegor Sobolev said they would remain. As of this morning, the protest consists
of 60 tents and 150 activists, reported the pravda.com.ua news site.

Zenon Zawada: Having
organized a tent city outside parliament, the activists should have had their
ducks lined up a row and mustered the necessary votes to approve a new election
law, which would have been a major victory. Their failure to prepare enough
votes speaks to their poor organization, as lends credibility to claims that
they were using the protests to boost their own political ratings.

It appears that the Poroshenko administration has
averted its latest political crisis with yesterday’s events. As a result, the
protests have lost their momentum and Saakashvili stands to discredit himself
if he takes the tent city protest too far. Poroshenko remains on the path to
re-election with the very election system that will enable him to consolidate
power in his second term.