Verkhovna Rada rejects personal voting

Ukraine’s parliament has rejected a proposal to introduce personal voting by Deputies through the use of a sensor key.  The proposal received on 226 votes from the 428 Deputies registered. The bill was not supported by the main party in the ruling majority, the Party of the Regions, nor the group “Reform for the Future”.

The draft bill tabled in the Verkhovna Rada by Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn envisaged the introduction of a modernized electronic system for counting up votes cast through cards with this entailing the National Deputy’s registration and voting with the help of a sensor key.

According to the Chair of the Committee on Regulations Issues, Volodymyr Makeyevnko, the Committee on the whole supports the resolution, but considers that the system should only be introduced after the relevant amendments to the Verkhovna Rada Regulations.

Arseny Yatsenyuk from the Our Ukraine – People’s Self-Defence faction, stressed that the introduction of an updated system for voting did not require any vote in the Verkhovna Rada. He said that all previous systems for voting had been introduced directly on the signature of the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada and head of the Verkhovna Rada apparatus.  “Mr Speaker, give the instruction and in 30 seconds Ukraine’s Constitution will be observed again in the country”.

After the first unsuccessful vote, Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn put to the vote a proposal to pass the given draft resolution in its first reading.  That proposal was supported by 221 out of 428 National Deputies. 254 Deputies voted for the proposal to send the draft resolution back for reworking.

Volodymyr Lytvyn has promised that he will, already today, , register amendments to the Regulations in the Verkhovna Rada so that the sensor system can be brought in.