Ukraine parliament approves draft bill to reduce parliament to 300 seats

Ukraine’s parliament approved preliminarily on Feb. 4
a bill to reduce the number of parliamentary seats by a third to 300 and to
preserve the proportional electoral system (eliminating single-mandate
districts). The measure was supported by 236 MPs (out of 226 needed), mostly
from pro-presidential The People’s Servant faction. Its members cited
preliminary census figures published by a state body, estimating the current
population at about 37.3 million, excluding occupied Donbas and illegally
annexed Crimea. That’s compared to about 52 million in 1991, when Ukraine
gained its independence. Critics of the legislation said the census estimate
was inadequately determined and can’t be used to determine state policy.

The neoliberal Voice party also expressed its
opposition to the bill, pointing to its riders that drew criticism from
Ukraine’s Constitutional Court. “We were the first to emerge with the
initiative to reduce the number of MPs in parliament to 300,” said Voice
Parliamentary Faction Head Serhiy Rakhmanin. “It’s pleasant that the People’s
Servant faction armed itself with our idea, but they destroyed it a bit. They
ruined everything possible. They took only our numbers and filled them with a
bunch of irrelevancies.” As an example, he cited a clause in the legislation
that “creates an exceedingly dangerous legal vacuum at a certain moment, in
which Ukraine won’t even have the ability to introduce martial law.”

Zenon Zawada: It’s long
overdue to reduce the number of seats in parliament, especially considering
that Ukraine’s population has plummeted since 1991 and most MPs vote in line
with their party. We expect this measure will be eventually approved with a
constitutional majority (of 300 votes), whether it’s with this bill or another.