13 August 2014
Ukraine’s parliament failed on Aug. 13 to support several key legislative items, most notably a new election law that would base parliamentary voting exclusively on open party lists. Under the current voting system, half of MPs are elected by single-winner, single-mandate districts, while another half are elected by closed party lists, which critics said doesn’t produce a legislature reflective of the people.
Parliament also failed to support a law on lustration that would prohibit from competing for public office those politicians involved with repressive governments, including the Soviet Union and the Yanukovych administration. Parliamentary Chair Oleksandr Turcvhynov said the various registered lustration bills will be reviewed on Aug. 14.
Several hundred protesters gathered outside parliament throughout the day with various demands, including approving legislation on lustration and open-list voting, implementing more frequent rotation of soldiers in the anti-terrorist operation and removing prosecutorial immunity from MPs that approved the so-called dictatorship laws.
Zenon Zawada: The parliament is facing significant pressure from the public to approve lustration and open-list voting. It might get away with failing to approve the new voting system, which would be very difficult to implement. However, it will have to approve some form of lustration in order to appease the demands for cleaning the government of corrupt officials.