The professionalism, independence of action, transparency, neutrality and accountability of a country’s election management body influences the level of trust citizens have in their country’s electoral process and the election results.
Ukraine’s election management body, the Central Election Commission, is led by 15 commissioners as stipulated by the law on Central Election Commission. At the moment, 13 of the 15 commissioners continue to operate via expired term limits due to inaction by President Petro Poroshenko and the parliament. With national elections on the horizon, Ukrainian civil society and the international community have continued to urge Poroshenko to, without delay, propose a slate of politically balanced CEC nominees for the 13 seats of the commissioners whose term has expired.
In June 2014, terms of 12 of the 15 members of the Central Election Commission expired. Ukrainian law requires that the president consults with Parliament to submit a list of new nominees or those members who should be reappointed, and then parliament either approves or rejects the nominees. However, due to the October 2015 local elections and subsequent runoff elections held two weeks later, as well as internal political disagreements, Poroshenko did not propose nominees to fill the 12 to-be-vacated CEC seats. When disagreements over the composition of the commission continued after the 2015 elections, the matter was postponed even further, leading to the expiry of the term of a 13th commissioner.
Procedural rules require parliament confirms each nominee proposed by Poroshenko separately with a majority vote (226 votes). If a nominee fails to receive the required number of votes, parliament turns back to Poroshenko for a replacement candidate. Poroshenko is not required to replace a nominee with a new candidate of the same political affiliation.
In June 2016, Poroshenko proposed the first slate of nominees; that slate was widely seen as politically unbalanced. The list was never voted on by parliament.
Notwithstanding the calls for a politically balanced composition from Ukrainian civil society and the international community, on Jan. 23, Poroshenko, for the second time, proposed a list of nominees lacking political balance and representation of all groups and factions in parliament.
The Jan. 23 list includes 14 nominees to presumably fill 13 seats (to renew the expired term limits associated with these seats). It remains unclear why a higher number of nominees was proposed, as in at least one nominee would need to be excluded, which could also mean that the excluded nominee could be a representative of one of the non-coalition political forces. There are no incumbent members of the CEC (although various election observation missions generally commended the performance of the Commission during the tenure of the last board) among Poroshenko’s proposed 14 nominees, which, if 13 of them are confirmed, will affect administrative continuity – a salient point with national elections on the immediate horizon.
Eight of the 14 nominees on the president’s Jan. 23 list were directly nominated by the ruling coalition partners, five by the Petro Poroshenko Bloc (Mykhailo Verbenskyi, Olga Zheltova, Svitlana Kustova, Olga Lotuk, Vitaliy Plukar) and three by the People’s Front (Natalia Bernatska, Iryna Yefremova, Leontiy Shypilov). Three nominees have been put forward by the Vidrodzhennya Group (Alla Basalayeva), Oleh Lyashko’s Radical Party (Tetiana Yuzkova), Samopomich (Yevgen Radchenko) and People’s Will (Tetyana Slipachuk).
Political party affiliations for two nominees (Oleg Konopolsiy and Nadiya Synytsya) are somewhat unclear. But, they are viewed to be affiliated with the Peoples’ Front. Konopolskiy was a proxy (“trustee”) for Yatsenyuk in the 2010 Presidential Election, while Synytsya was a deputy minister from April until December 2014 in ex-Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s government.
Two other leading parliamentary forces, the Opposition Block and Batkivshchyna, selected CEC nominees; but, all were omitted in the President’s slate. In addition, local experts in the field note that one of the two sitting CEC commissioners – Oleh Didenko – whose term is up in 2021, was originally nominated by the UDAR Party, which is now part of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc. The second sitting commissioner—Kateryna Makhnitska – whose term is also not up for re-nomination until 2021, was nominated by Svoboda.
Parliament’s vote on the president’s nominees to confirm 13 of the 14 nominees could happen in the coming weeks. Even if the one candidate “voted out” is of the ruling coalition, which is not likely, the ruling coalition would control 10 of 15 seats, or 67 percent of the CEC even as the governing coalition occupies just over 50 percent of the Rada’s seats. The vote could result in as many as 11 of the 15 CEC commissioners affiliated with the governing coalition. If Poroshenko’s proposed slate is confirmed, Ukraine’s CEC would not be politically balanced and Ukraine would fall short of established European standards of democratic electoral practices.
Poroshenko’s list of CEC nominees does not respond to the November 2017 statement by the G7 Ambassadors in Support of Electoral Reform, where they called on Ukraine to establish “a politically balanced election commission” and is not responsive to the January 2018 Resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe which called for a “balanced composition of the Central Election Committee according to the recommendations of the Council of Europe, by proportional representation of all parliamentary political factions.”
Political observers note the CEC that functioned under the watch of Ukraine’s former president, Viktor Yanukovych, achieved greater political balance than under Poroshenko’s proposed slate. Any decision of the CEC requires a simple majority of votes; having up to 11 members perceived as directly affiliated to the president’s’ office and his partners will hardly be seen as a credible electoral process through the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections next year.
In response to Poroshenko’s Jan. 23 list of nominees, Batkivshchyna leader Yuliya Tymoshenko has already expressed her concern regarding the 2019 elections and has stated the President is going to falsify the results. While these claims are not substantiated, there will always be a window for such accusations should a renewed CEC lack political balance and representation. Such accusations will result in a significant breach of trust to the electoral process in general, to the results of the elections and to the elected bodies.
Poroshenko’s proposed list of nominees – late in coming, highly misbalanced and one that repeats the imbalance of the first, June 2016 list – violates basic international tenets of forming and staffing balanced CECs tasked with supervising and shepherding democratic elections.
Next year is a particularly important year for Ukrainian democracy as the country will administer presidential and parliamentary elections that will determine how Ukraine moves on its pro-European trajectory.
An effective, credible, balanced, and transparent CEC with a renewed mandate is necessary sooner rather than later to reassure Ukrainians that next year’s elections are honest and will reflect the will of the people. A commission perceived as biased could result in challenges to future election processes and acceptance of results, and could undermine Ukraine’s overall democratic progress. If President Poroshenko values his country’s long-term, democratic headway and prosperity, he must ensure that Ukrainians have the CEC they deserve and for which they continue to fight. Since the nominations still have not been submitted to the Rada, President Poroshenko has a chance to change his position and provide Parliament with a politically-balanced slate.
Michael Getto is an electoral and public policy consultant who administered democracy and governance reform programming in Ukraine and other former Soviet republics for 16 years. He is now based in Aliso Viejo, California.
