The Ukrainian Parliament today adopted amendments to the law on the electoral system to be used at local elections (No 7043-1) in the final reading at its extraordinary plenary sitting.

A total of 264 MPs voted in favor of the law, which was submitted by Party of Regions MP Oleksandr Yefremov. The explanatory note to the draft bill states that a law on local elections adopted earlier by Parliament includes certain provisions which do not meet “democratic principles and international standards”. In particular, “this concerns a discriminatory criterion included in the law, which states that only those local branches of parties which are registered no later than 365 days prior to Election Day, have the right to put forward candidates at local elections”.

In effect, the new law eliminates the requirement of registration 365 days prior to Election Day for local party organizations in order for them to participate in elections by proposing that all registered local party organizations have the right to nominate candidates.

The new law also increases the composition of territorial electoral commissions to 18 persons and gives the right to all local organizations of political parties registered in Ukraine to submit candidates to be members of territorial electoral commissions by eliminating the provision that only parliamentary parties represented in the current Parliament have the right to nominate candidates to territorial election commissions. TECs will now consist of 18 people, of whom 15 are nominees of parliamentary parties and three nominees of other local party organizations chosen by the drawing of lots.

Speaking after the law was adopted, parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn said: “The election campaign is beginning. We have to make a decision. We are holding an extraordinary session in order to do this. Everyone had a chance to announce his stance. I think you all understand that we had to make a decision. Parliament has made a decision.” Parliament voted down two other alternative draft laws submitted by opposition MPs Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Lev Biryuk. Local elections are scheduled to take place in Ukraine (including the Autonomous Republic of Crimea) on October 31.