Poroshenko indicates slow progress on bills sought by protest

The Poroshenko Bloc parliamentary faction will vote for legislation establishing open-list, proportional voting in the 2019 parliamentary elections, said on Nov. 6 the president’s representative to parliament, Iryna Lutsenko, as reported by the pravda.com.ua news site. However, some of the faction’s single-mandate MPs said they won’t vote for the legislation, she said, adding that the faction leadership will try to convince them. Parliamentary committees will determine when such legislation will be voted on again, she said. Parliament failed to muster majorities for three votes on Oct. 19 to approve open-list, proportional voting to replace the current system of half of MPs determined by closed-list voting, and the other half by single-mandate voting.
 
President Poroshenko has called upon MPs to create a working group to draft consensus legislation on creating an independent Anti-Corruption Court. If such a consensus doesn’t emerge, the Poroshenko Bloc will submit the president’s draft, Lutsenko said. Meanwhile, Self-Reliance MP Yegor Sobolev, among the leaders of the tent city protest, told the pravda.com.ua news site that there was no need for a working group since the legislation supported by his faction has already been drafted and endorsed by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe. On Oct. 19, MPs withdrew this draft, as recommended by the Venice Commission, so that the president could submit his draft. If the president waits two weeks, the soonest parliament can discuss such legislation is Dec. 5, Sobolev said.
 
Zenon Zawada: We are confident that parliament’s two largest factions, the Poroshenko Bloc and the People’s Front, will work to undermine any attempt to introduce open-list, proportional voting for the 2019 parliamentary elections. They stand to lose their influence and eliminating single-mandate districts will make it far more difficult for the president to get legislation approved.
 
Meanwhile, it seems as though the Presidential Administration is stalling on creating the independent anti-corruption court. What this means is the tent city protest will remain in front of parliament until December, at minimum, which maintains the risk of a violent confrontation. Though the anti-corruption court was demanded by the IMF for the next tranche, it’s now apparent that Ukraine won’t able to secure this tranche by the new year, which is a significant disappointment and increases monetary risks, including hryvnia depreciation.