Deputies will work on creating a new law for the upcoming elections after the war.
In a scandalous interview, the leader of the mono-majority, David Arakhamia, in the second year of the war, leaked details of how it began and what the Ukrainian authorities were ready for in the first weeks of a full-scale invasion. It was these details that captivated the audience, but in the conversation with Arakhamia another interesting moment flashed...
An associate of the president said that during a regular meeting in the “Jean Manet Dialogue” format with the participation of former head of the European Parliament Pet Cox, the heads of parliamentary factions signed a memorandum behind closed doors on holding the next elections only after the end of martial law. “I believe that this needs to be conveyed to everyone so that everyone will eventually calm down and focus on the fact that we need to win,” Arakhamia concluded and added that there will definitely not be any elections until next year. In fact, he repeated the words of the president, who recently said that an election process during a war is not timely. Arakhamia also dispelled rumors that Western partners are insisting on elections even under martial law. Although earlier the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Tini Cox, spoke openly about this need.
What are Dialogues of Jean Manet?
“Dialogues of Jean Manet” (one of the “founding fathers” of the European Union) for the sake of peace and democracy – a format developed by the European Parliament. It combines parliamentary mediation and dialogue between political forces to achieve consensus on issues important to national politics. The first meeting in this format took place in October 2016.
So, what does a “post-war election agreement” that unites MPs look like?
The Road Map was signed during the ninth meeting of the Dialogues and the second meeting in this format after the outbreak of a full-scale war. This event took place in the village of Turya Paseka, Transcarpathian region, from November 10 to 12. The “memorandum” mentioned by Arakhamia is indeed called “Conclusions adopted during the ninth Dialogue of Jean Monnet” and concerns not only the issue of elections.
Thus, the document speaks of “a firm determination to work together, despite differences in political views.” Parliamentarians welcomed the positive and objective report from the European Commission regarding Ukraine's aspirations in the EU membership process and expressed gratitude for the recognition of the efforts that Ukraine has already made to meet the membership criteria. In general, the conclusions relate mainly to issues of further organization of the work of the Verkhovna Rada, strengthening parliamentary diplomacy and demonstrating parliamentary unity.
Only one paragraph at the end of the document is devoted to the topic of elections. The signatories agreed that the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections would be held after the end of the war and at least six months after the end of martial law.
It was noted that the upcoming elections are being held on the basis of the current Electoral Code, preserving national and local elections as the basis for the electoral systems.
But parliamentarians are already talking about abolishing the restriction of 25% of the electoral quota, on the achievement of which the promotion of a candidate on the party’s electoral list depends. This provision appeared in the Electoral Code in 2019 with the introduction of open lists. It assumes that a candidate, competing with other candidates higher on the party list, must reach a ceiling of 25% of the electoral quota in order to get ahead of them.
Electoral quota is the number of votes required to obtain one deputy mandate.
It is equal to the sum of all votes cast for passing parties, divided by the number of council mandates. The electoral quota is determined by the territorial election commission. The introduction of such an artificial restriction was strongly criticized due to its undemocratic nature: it is very difficult for a candidate to reach such an indicator, so the unconditional advantage should be given to the favorites of the party leadership, who have reserved the highest places on the lists. And this neutralizes the very idea of open lists as such. However, now discussing such subtleties of the upcoming election campaign looks like sharing the skin of an unkilled bear. Or the signatories of the memorandum do not consider the prospect of elections too distant. The document also mentions the preparation of a separate law under which the first post-war elections will be held.
Among the signatories are not only heads of factions, as Arakhamia said. The first to sign their autographs were the leaders of the parliament - First Deputy Speaker Alexander Kornienko and Vice Speaker Elena Kondratyuk. “Servant of the People” is represented by as many as four signatories: the head of the mega-faction, David Arakhamia, and people’s deputies who are not even his deputies – Vadim Galaychuk, Sergei Kalchenko and Victoria Podgornaya. There are also several signatures from other factions: Irina Gerashchenko, Andrey Parubiy and Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze from the EU, Yulia Tymoshenko and Sergei Sobolev from Batkivshchyna, Alexandra Ustinova and Vladimir Tsabal from Golos.
In addition to factions, parliamentary groups also disowned the idea of elections during the war. The piquancy is that they consist mainly of majoritarian voters, and the majoritarian system in the next elections, according to the Electoral Code, will not operate. From “Trust” the signatures were put by Vladimir Areshonkov and Larisa Bilozir, from the “heiress” of the OPZZH “Platforms for Life and Peace” - Mikhail Papiev and from “For the Future” - Anna Skorokhod, whose name was written in by hand, it seems, at the last moment . The Restoration of Ukraine group ignored the signing.
The moderator of the “Dialogues,” Ex-President of the European Parliament Pat Cox, said that he was very pleased that “the factions agreed on the principles of holding the upcoming free and fair national parliamentary and presidential elections after the end of the war and martial law.”
But it is worth remembering that the document, signed and rarely seen by Arakhamia, does not obligate anyone to anything. And the lifting of martial law is the initiative of the president, who at any time can take all the risks of holding elections upon himself.
