Committee of Voters of Ukraine expresses concern over undemocratic methods of choosing candidates

Judging by the way the first parties and blocs have put forward candidates for the office of deputy, the Committee of Voters of Ukraine [CVU] sees grounds for speaking of an undemocratic approach to holding congresses and forming party candidate lists.

According to the Head of the CVU Ihor Popov, the Committee’s monitoring of regional party (bloc) conferences and congresses showed that a lot was done behind the scenes, in a non-transparent manner and with the principle behind delegating representatives of the regions to congresses remaining unclear. Mr Popov said that if the snap elections were put back, it would be wise to review the candidates proposed on the basis of democratic procedure, openness and transparency. “There need to be discussions, primaries, and we must have openness. At least now members of the parties should explain more openly why this or that person ended up on the list, so that this approach reaches the ordinary members who will be doing the pre-election campaigning. And they need to understand this”.

Ihor Popov mentioned another preliminary conclusion from the pre-election congresses, this being the excessive preoccupation of politicians with the personal makeup of candidate lists and the lack of discussion about what new things the parties have to offer the voters.