28/09/2011
Strasbourg – a delegation of the Venice Commission travelled to Kyiv from 21 to 23 September 2011 to exchange views on the draft law on the elections of MPs in Ukraine which was sent for opinion to the Commission by the Minister of Justice Mr O. Lavrynovych earlier this year. During the visit the delegation met with:
- the Minister of Justice,
- representatives of the working group drafting the law;
- representatives of the different political forces and of the civil society;
- foreign ambassadors and representatives of different international organizations.
At the press conference at the end of the visit, the Secretary of the Venice Commission Thomas Markert thanked the Ukrainian authorities for the willingness to discuss the preliminary Venice Commission’s remarks. He also welcomed their readiness to review the text of the draft law.
At the same time Mr Markert took note of the concerns of different national stake-holders about the process of drafting of this law. He stressed that the question of the choice of the electoral system should be broadly discussed with the civil society and that no change of the electoral system should be made without the consensus of the major political forces as the issue of the rules for electing MPs is essential to any democracy. Unfortunately, the process of drafting of the current draft law lacked such consensus. The issue of the choice of the electoral system was decided unilaterally by the majority.
Based on the results of the visit, the rapporteurs of the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR will finalise the draft opinion which is to be discussed and possibly adopted by the plenary session of the Commission 14-15 October 2011 in Venice.
The Venice Commission expects that the draft law will be submitted to the Verkhovna Rada after the adoption of its final opinion.
Press contacts: Tatyana Mychelova, External Relations Officer, Venice Commission
Office: +33 388 41 3868; mob. +33676720402; email: tatiana.mychelova@coe.int