Ukraine’s Constitutional Court has revoked a highly controversial law passed in early 2016 which enabled political parties to strip MPs of their mandate. The Court confirmed what election watchdogs had said from the outset, namely that the law is in breach of Ukraine’s Constitution and flouted the principle that it is the people who vote for their representatives, not the party hierarchy. The bill had been slammed by the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission, but the latter had also reiterated its criticism of Article 81 of Ukraine’s Constitution which allows for MPs to be removed if they leave their faction. The Constitutional Court was reacting to a constitutional submission from 49 MPs specifically related to the 2016 law, which may (or may not) explain why it did not address the so-called ’imperative mandate’ in Article 81. Certainly, the arguments given would seem to apply just as much to that constitutional norm.
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Halya Coynash: Ukraine’s ‘party dictatorship’ law for removing inconvenient MPs revoked as unconstitutional
Judges of Ukraine's Constitutional Court.
