Among Ukrainian politicians and political scientists, there is a prevailing opinion that in the world's oldest democracy, which is considered to be Great Britain, elections, both parliamentary and local, are held under a majoritarian system of relative majority. We must note that this assertion is quite erroneous. The last decade has become a decade of reform of electoral legislation in Great Britain, characterized by a transition from the traditional majoritarian system to various forms of proportional representation. Although the essence of this article is not to present material regarding the electoral systems that function in parliamentary and local elections in the United Kingdom, but rather to prevent further speculation on this topic. Therefore, we will present only the key points that characterize the introduction and functioning of proportional electoral systems in Great Britain.

With the Labour Party coming to power in 1997, a stage of radical changes began in the structure of regional and local authorities, which resulted in the creation of regional parliaments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as in the structure of local self-government bodies. The consequence of such changes was the introduction of new electoral systems for newly created or reformed representative bodies of power.

For example, the Scottish Parliament was first elected in modern British history in 1999 under a mixed electoral system very similar to the German one (73 deputies in majoritarian constituencies, 56 in 7 multi-member constituencies by party lists). The National Assembly for Wales is elected under the same system as the Scottish Parliament (40 deputies in single-member majoritarian constituencies and another 20 in 5 multi-member constituencies by party lists). The Northern Ireland Assembly is elected under a proportional system by means of voting with the right to transfer a vote to another candidate (Single Transferable Vote). The first elections were held in 1998; 6 members of the Assembly are elected in 18 multi-member constituencies.

As for local elections in these constituent parts of the United Kingdom, local councils in Scotland until recently were elected under the majoritarian system of relative majority (in 1999 and 2003), but the next local elections in 2007 will be held under a new electoral law based on a proportional voting system with the right to transfer a vote to another candidate. A similar situation has developed with local elections in Wales, but the National Assembly in 2002 rejected the proposal to transition to a system of voting with the right to transfer a vote to another candidate. The same electoral system has been successfully used for a long time in local elections in Northern Ireland.

At the same time, it is worth noting that the majoritarian system of relative majority currently remains in effect only for elections to the lower house of the British Parliament (House of Commons) and local self-government bodies in England itself. Until recently, all attempts to introduce a proportional system for elections to Westminster have not found support among politicians for a number of reasons, although in this case as well a number of draft laws have been developed regarding changes to the electoral system in the direction of transitioning to proportionality.

If we speak about the technology of introducing changes to electoral systems and electoral legislation in general, then Ukrainian parliamentarians have something to learn from their British colleagues. The process of introducing changes to electoral legislation has several key stages and is quite extended in time (for example, the draft law on the transition to a proportional system in local elections in Scotland has been studied by the public, experts and political parties since 1997, and the changes will come into effect only at the elections in 2007).

The procedure itself is as follows:

1. Awareness of the need to change electoral legislation by the ruling party and determination of the main requirements for the future draft law, which must necessarily be reflected in the new electoral law. In the case when possible changes to electoral legislation were considered that were to regulate elections to the lower house of the British Parliament, such requirements were: 1) ensuring proportionality of election results to the mandates received; 2) the need to form a stable government based on election results; 3) preserving the connection between parliamentarians and the territories they represent.

2. Creation of a parliamentary commission to work on the new draft law. Such a commission typically includes parliamentarians from various political forces and independent experts. There are also possible variants when two separate commissions are created – a parliamentary one and an independent one – which develop the basic document, taking into account the requirements established by the government (ruling party).

3. Publication of the previously developed draft law for consideration by the public and experts in order to obtain feedback, recommendations and conclusions from a wider circle of interested persons.

4. Discussion of the draft law in expert circles.

5. Summarization of conclusions and proposals by the commission(s) that developed the basic draft law and introduction of corresponding changes to it.

6. Submission to parliament of the draft law on holding elections.

7. Adoption of the law on elections.

Given that in Ukraine the provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On Elections of Deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Local Councils and Village, Settlement, City Heads" and the Law of Ukraine "On Elections of People's Deputies of Ukraine" are currently being actively discussed precisely in the context of the transition to a proportional electoral system of closed lists, it is important to introduce a procedure of open discussion of such important draft laws before the document is adopted in the form of a law. The above-described procedure, through which the vast majority of legislative initiatives in Great Britain pass, may be acceptable in our conditions as well and may serve as a model for introducing changes to electoral legislation in Ukraine and other countries.

It is obvious that these proposals cannot be implemented during the preparation of changes to the electoral laws already existing in Ukraine at the current stage, but taking into account that our electoral legislation changes with every election, we consider it appropriate to follow the proposed procedure in the future. This will ensure transparency and justification of the intentions of political forces that propose such changes and will prepare society for the possible consequences of reforming electoral legislation.

References

1. International IDEA Handbook of Electoral System Design, Stockholm, 1997 2. www.electoralcommission.gov.uk – The Electoral Commission 3. www.electoral-reform.org.uk – Electoral Reform Society