The Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, has passed a law that allows nationwide binding referendums.
The law received the votes of 255 lawmakers – mostly from President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People party – in the second and final reading on Jan. 26.
Zelensky sponsored the law, which specifies the range of issues that can be put up for a nationwide referendum, including:
- making amendments to several sections of the Constitution that concern general principles, elections and the order of changing the Constitution;
- changing the territory of Ukraine;
- any “issues of national importance”;
- repealing laws and their specific provisions.
Meanwhile, it will be prohibited to bring up issues that contradict international law, the Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and its protocols.
While referendums about “changes to the territory of Ukraine” are allowed, questions that “aim to violate the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” as well as its “independence and national security” are banned.
The issues proposed for a referendum can’t violate or restrict constitutional rights and freedoms or incite ethnic, racial and religious hatred.
Ukrainians also won’t have a chance to vote on taxes, budget, amnesties, and issues that fall within the scope of law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and courts.
Ukrainians will be able to vote with paper ballots or online. A referendum can include only one question at a time. It has to be a yes-or-no question.
A referendum can be initiated by the president (only to amend the Constitution), by parliament (only to change the territory of Ukraine), or by a group of Ukrainian citizens.
To initiate a referendum, a group of at least 60 Ukrainians has to collect signatures of at least 3 million people in at least two-thirds of the oblasts of Ukraine, at least 100,000 signatures in each. When the signatures are collected, the president must hold a referendum for the question proposed by the group.
A referendum will be legitimate if at least 50% of Ukrainians above the age of 18 participate in it.
To enable online voting, parliament will have to adopt a separate law, according to Ruslan Stefanchuk, the first deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada.
Some provisions of the law, including online voting, have provoked criticism.
“(Introducing online voting) can take up to 10 years,” Olga Aivazovska, the head of the Opora election watchdog, wrote on Facebook about the new law. “It can’t be sped up due to distrust of this form of voting, risks and the state’s weaknesses when it comes to protecting such data and procedures from external interference.”
The opposition parties in parliament criticized the law, too.
“Such referendums (that use online voting) can jeopardize Ukraine’s national security, especially when (Ukraine is facing) aggression from the Russian Federation”, said Volodymyr Ariev, a lawmaker from the 27-member European Solidarity party.
Serhii Rakhmanin, a lawmaker from the 20-member Holos (Voice) party, said that the new law “will allow anyone to change or repeal laws, pretending that it’s the will of the people.”
Ukraine had a law allowing national referendums from 2012 to 2018. It was passed during the reign of now-fugitive president Viktor Yanukovych and struck down by the Constitutional Court in 2018.
Ukraine had held only two nationwide referendums in its history. In 1991, Ukrainians voted for the country’s independence from the Soviet Union.
In 2000, Ukrainians voted to change the parliament: the majority said “yes” to a two-house parliament, cutting the number of lawmakers from 450 to 300, and repealing the lawmakers’ immunity from prosecution. However, in the absence of clear laws regulating referendums, the Verkhovna Rada ignored the 2000 referendum, saying it was non-binding.
