Inside Ukraine Newsletter, Kyiv, Ukraine, March 28, 2004

Thus, the passage of the proportional Rada elections bill by a vote of 255 in favor out of 305 who took part in the vote paves the way for the eventual final passage of the constitutional reform amendments that would substantially weaken the powers of the office of president while at the same time strengthening both future governments and the Rada.

The 29-vote margin by which the election bill was passed was not reached without considerable rancor and bad blood among some Rada factions that have membership from current majority districts. The final vote came at about 11:30 p.m. on Thursday evening after passage of only 6 of the approximately 950 amendments that had been offered by Rada members.

The final passage was believed to have been eased substantially when all efforts to stop deputy migration from faction to faction was dropped in the final version. The continuation of the migration option is believed to provide one of the richest opportunities that some members have for personal gain.

Two relatively small but powerful factions - strong because of their leadership more so than their numbers - suffered substantial losses in membership because of unhappiness with parts of the election law that would disadvantage members currently elected from majority districts. Bohdan Hubskiy's People's Power faction lost four members and Democratic Initiatives, the faction led by the chairman of the Rada's pro-presidential majority, Stephan Havrysh, lost three members. While not great in number, it is believed possible that the seven disgruntled majority district members may become the nucleus of a new faction with Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn as a possible faction leader.

In its final form, the bill was stripped of a number of it earlier provisions but most major provisions were left intact.

Parliamentary deputies will be elected according to party lists of parties and blocs that must be registered at least one year ahead of the parliamentary elections. Rada campaigns will officially begin four months before the date of the election. All of Ukraine will be divided into 225 election districts with each district having its own election committee to be composed of representatives of those parties and blocs that are certified by the Central Election Commission.

Party election funds are to be comprised of party membership fees and the voluntary donations of party members. Any party member may contribute any amount to his or her own party up to a maximum of 82,000 UAH.

The first major hurdle in the campaign process will be the posting of election deposits. Each party or bloc requesting to be placed on the parliamentary election ballot must post an election deposit of 512,500 UAH. This substantial sum will be returned only to those parties and blocs that gain at least 7 percent of the total parliamentary election vote nationally. For some smaller parties, the possibility of forfeiting over a half-million hryvnas to the state budget may be a strong disincentive to making a campaign run.

It is interesting to note that under the provisions adopted in this bill parties and blocs might gain a proportional share of the Rada deputy slots after gaining only 3 percent of the vote. Therefore, it is entirely possible that a party or bloc might win perhaps 15 to 30 seats in the Rada but still could be subject to a forfeit by not passing the 7 percent barrier needed to reclaim the deposit.

The bill would restrict official pre-election advertising to the 70 days before the date of the election. The bill also would strictly prohibit political advertising in public transport and would prohibit representatives of the state executive power, e.g. the Presidential Administration, local self-governance and law-enforcement bodies and members of the judiciary, from taking part in the pre-election campaign. Of course, similar provisions in previous election laws have been almost totally ignored and it is expected that should this bill become law, this particular provision would be equally well observed.

The bill requires that all ballot boxes should be constructed of transparent materials, apparently on the premise that a transparent ballot box could not be as easily stuffed with bogus ballots. Some Rada wags suggest that this provision will be totally ineffective in some areas of Ukraine where ballot box stuffing has reached the point of being a highly developed art.

In what may become one of the more controversial provisions of the bill, there is a provision that prohibits civic public organizations from taking part in the vote count. This appears to be a direct slap at the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, an election-reform organization that has angered some regional and national officials by becoming quite effective in its efforts.