OPPOSITION PLATFORM – FOR LIFE strongly advocates that members of the Ukrainian parliament are elected from open party lists, MP Serhiy Lovochkin told journalists on the sidelines of the Verkhovna Rada on Thursday, Dec. 5.

“Our faction strongly supports introduction of open party lists, which means that members of the parliament are elected without buying their votes. We believe that if the Verkhovna Rada is politically structured, it will allow the MPs be more responsible towards obligations they undertake during campaign,” Lovochkin said.

He added that OPPOSITION PLATFORM – FOR LIFE has several comments to the Electoral Code as proposed by the administration.

“We believe that the ballot paper they have offered is absolutely inefficient because a voter will need to read through a lot of information not from the ballot paper itself but from hard copies on ballot stations. It will add confusion, therefore we insist on amendments that will simplify the voting paper,” the opposition politician said.

In addition, the proposed draft of the Electoral Code includes provisions that allow for creating police-run state in Ukraine.

“The Electoral Code features a blatant new provision that allows the Security Service simply write a letter to the central Election Commission with an unmotivated request to cancel registration of any candidate. We believe these to be signs of a police-run state,” Lovochkin said.

He added the opposition faction will insist on passing amendments to the documents and the amended Election Code itself, which is yet another obligation of the parliament to their voters.

“Our faction has the best experts on election legislation. They will work with those drafting the bill, and we hope for support from the society so that the mono-majority passes their amendments to the Code,” the MP said.