KIEV, May 22. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada (parliament) has failed to consider two bills changing the election law, which were submitted by President Vladimir Zelensky. The documents failed to gain enough votes to be put to consideration at a meeting initiated by the president.
"Regrettably, we were unable to include either of these bills in the agenda," Parliament Speaker Andrei Parubiy said following the vote and declared the meeting closed.
As many as 92 lawmakers voted in favor of considering Zelensky’s idea to change the election law, while another 127 supported his initiative on procurement concerning election campaigns.
Zelensky particularly called for lowering the vote threshold for parties from five to three percent and introducing a proportional election system. However, the hottest debate concerned party lists.
Parubiy said that the bill did not mention open party lists. Meanwhile, Ukrainian Presidential Administration Chief Andrei Bogdan said on Tuesday that though Zelensky supported the idea of open lists but it was impossible to implement it because of the Rada’s position. When speaking about the planned changes to the election law, he said that the provision concerning the majority election system would be excluded, while the vote threshold would be reduced from five to three percent.