Local elections, judicial and decentralization reforms: new draft bills for the Parliament
13 July 2020
This week the Parliament holds its last plenary meetings of the current parliamentary session. Before a summer break, MPs are going to make several crucial decisions that will influence people’s everyday life and once again will challenge the system of checks and balances.
Today in our digest: local elections, presidential initiative on judicial reform and Cabinet’s proposal on amalgamating raions.
Local elections in October (3809)
Status: the resolution is on the parliamentary agenda. The Parliament will probably consider it this week.
Who is affected: Ukrainian citizens, political parties, local government, and government bodies.
What does it change:
- local elections will be held on October 25, 2020. Oblasts, Kyiv, raions and city districts will elect their representatives
- the CEC will be obliged to conduct first elections in newly created amalgamated communities.
Why this is important: the Parliament is the only authority that has a power to start local elections. Without Verkhovna Rada’s decision, no local elections will be held.
What is right: the Constitution provisions that local elections are to be held on the last Sunday of October each 5 years. Thus, the Parliament is obliged to vote and conduct local elections this autumn.
What is wrong: the resolution provisions to conduct local elections only in oblasts, Kyiv city and district councils, while a number of local councils are not covered by the resolution.
What’s next: the parliamentary committee has to amend the resolution.
Judicial reform in progress (3711)
Status: the bill is on the parliamentary agenda.
Who is affected: Ukrainian citizens, local government, territorial offices of executive bodies, the Supreme Court, the High qualification Commission of Judges, and the High Council of Justice.
What does it change:
- the High Council of Justice will decide on how many judges will be in the Supreme Court
- judges of the liquidated Supreme Court of Ukraine will be eligible to apply for the Supreme Court. They will be assessed by the High Council of Justice
- the High qualification Commission of Judges will be reformed under the High Council of Justice’s supervision.
Why this is important:
- the Constitutional Court has declared Volodymyr Zelensky’s judicial reform partly unconstitutional. The draft bill in question is a second attempt by the President to reform the judiciary
- judiciary is an independent branch of power that should control the work of other state institutions. Thus, any attempts at reforming the judicial branch has to be well-thought-out and in accord with the Constitution.
What is right: to an extent, the bill complies with the Constitutional Court’s decision.
What is wrong:
- civic activists warn that the High Council of Justice should not have that much influence on the judicial reform, the High qualification Commission of Judges, and judges
- G7 ambassadors indicated that Ukraine should abide to international agreements while implementing the judicial reform.
Decentralization reform, amalgamated raions (3650)
Status: included on the parliamentary agenda.
Who is affected: Ukrainian citizens, state bodies, and local government.
What does it change:
- the bill proposes to amalgamate raions: Ukraine will have 129 raions instead of 490
- amalgamation will not imply that raions are to hold elections after been created.
Why this is important: decentralization reform envisages amalgamated raions. It started with amalgamated communities, amalgamated raions are the next step.
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