In fact, the start of the election campaign began with the resolution of personnel issues - the formation of territorial election commissions (TECs). And, since this is one of the key stages of the election process, the OPORA Civic Network paid attention to this issue and conducted an analysis of the composition of the created territorial election commissions regarding the provision of equal conditions for all interested subjects. This report summarizes information about: - the number of formed TECs for each type of election; - the quantitative composition of territorial election commissions; - party representation in TECs; - the distribution of leadership positions in election commissions;
Exactly a week ago, on the last day allotted by law - September 15, 2010, at its evening session, the CEC, having adopted Resolution No. 355, formed the composition of all 21 territorial election commissions of the Volyn region that carry out the preparation and conduct of local elections. Of these, 1 regional, 16 district and 4 city (cities of regional significance) election commissions.
In the maximum composition, namely in the number of 18 people, 18 territorial election commissions were formed. The remaining three TECs have fewer than 18 people in their composition, in particular: Lyubeshiv (16 people), Turiysk (17 people) and Shatsk (16) district election commissions.
20 political parties took part in the formation of the TEC composition in the Volyn region, of which 13 submitted their proposals from parliamentary factions, and the remaining 7 proposed their candidates for the lottery. In general, in the region (as in the whole country), the distribution of the number of seats in commissions is disproportionate.
Such parliamentary parties as the Party of Regions, the Communist Party and the People's Party were given the corresponding advantages by the election law itself. These parties independently formed their deputy factions in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the current convocation (the People's Party thanks to the exit from the Lytvyn Bloc of its partner - Labor Ukraine, later renamed Strong Ukraine), and therefore had the right to submit three delegated candidates to each territorial election commission. In most cases, they took advantage of this opportunity and submitted the maximum possible number of people. Only in the Turiysk district election commission, instead of three, the People's Party is represented by two members, and in the Shatsk district election commission, there is only one representative from the Communist Party of Ukraine. Thus, the parties-members of the ruling coalition automatically received the opportunity to form half of the composition of all TECs.
Other parliamentary parties, whose blocs formed the corresponding factions in the VRU, were somewhat limited in their capabilities compared to the ruling parties. Thus, the parties belonging to the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc were forced to compete among themselves for the right to obtain seats in TECs. Each of these parties submitted three candidates to each election commission, and the CEC itself chose which party representatives to include in the composition of the corresponding TEC. Therefore, these parties divided the quota of 63 seats in TECs among themselves in different proportions.
An even more complicated situation arose in the "Our Ukraine – People's Self-Defense" Bloc, which in the 2007 elections was formed by as many as nine political parties that today actually do not cooperate with each other. Here the competition was several times higher. As a result of consideration of the candidates submitted by the parties-members of the "NU-NS" Bloc, the CEC determined at its discretion the persons who took seats in the TECs.
Immediately striking is the equally large number of representatives (10 TEC members) of the Christian Democratic Union, a party that cannot boast of active activity in recent years, however, the people's deputies-members of whose governing body are part of the parliamentary majority. In addition, in the Kivertsi district election commission, the entire quota of the "NU-NS" faction was taken by candidates from the CDU. The picture of the distribution of seats in TECs among non-parliamentary parties looks very interesting. The method of drawing lots for the order of inclusion of candidates from local party organizations into the TEC composition led to the fact that some parties received more representation in election commissions than others.
Quite unexpectedly, seats in most territorial election commissions of the Volyn region were received by such little-noticed parties in recent years as the Green Party of Ukraine, the Peasant Party of Ukraine and the "Solidarity of Women of Ukraine" Party. The latter generally received representation in TECs only in Volyn. Instead, such political forces as "Strong Ukraine", Front of Changes and United Center, which have been actively working in the region over the past years, did not receive a single seat in TECs. 12 parties were admitted to the distribution of leadership positions in Volyn TECs. Of all the parties, the largest number of leadership positions in the territorial election commissions of the region was received by the "Batkivshchyna" All-Ukrainian Association - 20. Next are the Party of Regions – 13 positions and the "Our Ukraine" party (7). Other pro-government parties – the People's Party and the Communist Party – received 5 and 4 leadership positions.
A similar distribution among parties is also observed in terms of the positions received. The largest number of TEC chair positions was received by the "Batkivshchyna" All-Ukrainian Association (13). Three times fewer such positions are held by the Party of Regions - 4. The first place in terms of the number of TEC secretary positions is also held by the "Batkivshchyna" All-Ukrainian Association - 5, while the largest number of deputy chair positions of TECs is held by the Party of Regions – 5. As for other political forces, 4 deputy chairs of TECs were appointed from the CPU, and 4 secretaries each from the People's Party and Our Ukraine.
Thus, the distribution of leadership positions in the formed TECs is disproportionate to the number of TEC members from each party. We also note the following two features in the composition of the TECs formed by the CEC in Volyn: in all city election commissions formed by the CEC, leadership positions were given to only three parties – Batkivshchyna, the Party of Regions and Our Ukraine, and the fact that in 20 of 21 TECs (except the Turiysk district election commission), the leadership of the commissions includes representatives of the "Batkivshchyna" All-Ukrainian Association. At the moment, the formation of city, village, and settlement election commissions has also been completed, which district election commissions had to establish by September 19.
As for the conclusions on the conditionally "first" stage of the election campaign, they are as follows: 1. The law on local elections itself contained discriminatory norms that created advantages for some parties (pro-government) when submitting candidates to the TEC composition, and for others (opposition and non-parliamentary) became an obstacle to the realization of the right to representation in election commissions; 2. The vaguely written procedure for selecting candidates from parties-members of election blocs and the procedure for drawing lots for candidates from non-parliamentary parties led to a disproportionate distribution of seats in TECs among political parties; 3. Seats in territorial commissions were received by little-known political forces that had previously been inactive in the region.
The next important stage of the election process will be the nomination of candidates for deputies and for the positions of heads of territorial communities, which will begin on September 27 and will last in general until October 8 inclusive. During this period, the OPORA Civic Network will monitor the process of nominating candidates for deputies, holding party conferences, the procedure for submitting documents to TECs and the progress of registration of candidates for deputies.
Mykhailo Shelep, Coordinator of the civic observation campaign in the Volyn region mobile phone: 067-41-65-086, e-mail: mike.shelep@gmail.com