Constitutional Court Rules Unconstitutional Attribution Of Abroad Electoral …
The Constitutional Court has ruled unconstitutional separate provisions of Article 22, Section 2 of the Law on Elections of People’s Deputies of Ukraine, under which abroad electoral districts at the elections of Verkhovna Rada deputies are attributed to the single-member (majority) constituencies created on the territory of Kyiv, reads the Constitutional Court’s judgement, announced on Thursday.
The Court has arrived at a conclusion on non-conformity with the constitution of the mentioned provisions due to the fact that attribution of abroad electoral districts to single-member constituencies in Kyiv leads to groundless considerable increase in the quantity of voters who will vote in these constituencies without being connected with the territorial community of Kyiv.
“Application of the law provisions under which the voters who live or stay abroad vote for candidates for the people’s deputies of Ukraine in single-member electoral districts in the capital of Ukraine, the city of Kyiv does not ensure reflection of expression of will of those voters who live on territory of the city of Kyiv,” the judgement reads.
The Court notes, attribution of abroad electoral districts to single-member constituencies in Kyiv does not ensure equal legal opportunities of candidates for deputies who will stand in single-member constituencies in Kyiv as regards their right to be elected, because thus is restricted the possibility of formation of free expression of will of voters who live or stay abroad.
Apart from this, the Constitutional Court mentions a resolution of the European Court of Human Rights in a 1996 case, under which citizens who live abroad are less connected and less interested as it pertains the interior affairs and processes, so it ruled possible to strip such voters of active right to vote.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, 59 Members of Parliament on February 28 filed a petition asking to check compliance with the constitution of provisions of the Law on Elections of People’s Deputies in the part of attribution of abroad electoral districts to single-member constituencies that are created on the territory of Kyiv.
The Verkhovna Rada on November 17, 2011 passed a new law on parliamentary elections. It introduces a mixed election system with raising the vote threshold to 5% and prohibiting blocs from running in elections.