On August 11, 2022, Razumkov Centre organised the online Round-table "Elections and voting rights in Ukraine before and after the war" and presentation of the publication "Electoral Code of Ukraine. Book I. General. Scientific and practical commentary", prepared by a group of well-known Ukrainian legal scholars, practicing lawyers and independent experts.
The event was held by the Razumkov Centre together with the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine (Venice Commission). Ukrainian legal scholars from Ivano-Frankivsk, Irpin, Vinnytsia, Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Uzhhorod, Chernivtsi, Kharkiv, Polish constitutional experts from Rzeszów and Łódz, Ukrainian MPs of previous convocations, retired judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, independent experts took part.
The Round-table participants were welcomed by the Razumkov Centre President, editor-in-chief of the National Security and Defence Journal Yuriy Yakymenko and the Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine Steen Nørlov. Noting the importance of the process of preserving democracy in Ukraine in general, ensuring the irreversibility of its civilisational development as a democratic state, Razumkov Centre President Yu. Yakymenko emphasised the particular role of elections and electoral rights in this process. In his opinion, the main slogan of the Venice Commission "Democracy through law" is implemented through elections, and popular rule as the basis of democracy materialises in a modern state through electoral procedures. That is why elections and electoral rights are indispensable for a peaceful future of Ukraine.
The Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine Mr. Steen Nørlov in his welcoming speech noted, in particular, that “presentation of the publication "Electoral Code of Ukraine. Book I. General. Scientific and practical commentary" was supposed to take place in February. However, the war unleashed by the Russian Federation against Ukraine did not let it happen. Although elections are a tool of the peaceful time, we should already think about the risks this war brought for the future election process. It is time to talk, think, analyse the ways of development of the election legislation and practices that need to be implemented after Ukraine’s victory in order for it to meet the main principles and standards of the Council of Europe and the best European practices.”
Presenting the book "Electoral Code of Ukraine. Book I. General. Scientific and practical commentary", the head of the publication author's team, Ph.D. in Law, Associate Professor of the Department of General Theoretical Jurisprudence and Public Law of the National University "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy", member of the Scientific Advisory Council at the Supreme Court Yuriy Klyuchkovskyi, in particular, noted that the Commentary authors wanted not only to draw the attention of the broad public to the publication proper but also to initiate discussion of the prospects of the right to vote in post-war Ukraine. The head of the author's team talked about the peculiarities of the work on the Commentary to the General of the Election Code, as well as about a number of problems in the national election legislation revealed during this work, including the actual incompleteness of the its codification. As a result, two important laws remained outside the process of "codification of the election legislation": on the Central Election Commission and on the state register of voters, which turned out to be not quite a positive phenomenon, which can both lead to the emergence of certain collisions among the relevant normative acts, and arouse doubt regarding the significance of the Election Code as a basic act of electoral legislation.
Considerations about some sections of the publication "Electoral Code of Ukraine. Book I. General. Scientific and practical commentary" were shared at the Round-table meeting by the working group members (co-authors of the Commentary), namely: Nataliya BOHASHEVA, scientific consultant of the Department of Support for the Work of the Judicial Chamber for Consideration of Cases of the Election Process and Referendum, and Protection of Political Rights of Citizens of the Administrative Cassation Court Secretariat, candidate of legal sciences; Oleg MARTSELIAK, professor of the Department of Constitutional Law of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University, Ph.D in Law; Olena BOYKO, doctoral student of the Institute of Public Administration and Civil Service of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University, candidate of sciences in public administration; Andriy MAHERA, Deputy Chairman of the Central Election Commission in 2007-2018, member of the Razumkov Centre; Oleksandr BURMAHIN, member of the National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting; Volodymyr VENGER, associate professor of the Department of General Theoretical Jurisprudence and Public Law of the National University "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy", candidate of legal sciences.
Praising the work of the author's team on the publication "Electoral Code of Ukraine. Book I. General. Scientific and practical commentary", the Round-table participants in their speeches touched upon various aspects of the place and role of elections in the constitutional development of Ukraine in general and the state of electoral rights in particular. Active participants of the discussion included Oleksandr Sushinskyi — director of the educational and scientific institute of public administration of the Lviv Polytechnic National University, Viktor Shyshkin — retired judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, people's deputy of Ukraine of previous convocations, the first Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Olena Boryslavska — professor of the Department of Constitutional Law of the Ivan Franko Lviv National University, Volodymyr Sushchenko — a human rights activist, long-time Dean of the Law Faculty of the National University "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy", Fedir Medvid, professor of the Department of Theory of State and Law of the Institute of Law of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Petro Stetsyuk — a retired judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, legal consultant of Razumkov Centre
The discussion was broadcast on the website of the Razumkov Centre — razumkov.org.ua, and on YouTube.
https://razumkov.org.ua/novyny/kruglyi-stil-vybory-i-vyborche-pravo-v-ukraini-do-i-pislia-viiny
