Our Own Versus Our Own: Which 'Servants of the People' Challenged the Party's Laws or Zelensky's Decrees in the Constitutional Court

Svoi proty svoikh: who among the "Servant of the People" members challenged the party's laws or Zelensky’s decrees in the Constitutional Court

Members of the "Servant of the People" party, as "Slovo i dilo" recently found, turn to the Constitutional Court more often than the opposition "Holos" and "European Solidarity." Reviewing the submissions signed by deputies from the mono-majority, we found that they ask to check the constitutionality not only of laws from previous convocations or Cabinet resolutions, but also of laws authored by their colleagues and even decrees of Volodymyr Zelensky.

At the end of 2019 year, still during the turbo mode period, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a new Electoral Code with the president’s proposals. The "Servant of the People" party and Volodymyr Zelensky himself promised to introduce elections under a proportional system with open lists. The law was supported by 223 members of the "Servant of the People" faction.

In February 45 deputies, among whom were 22 "Servant of the People" members, submitted to the Constitutional Court a petition on the constitutionality of certain provisions of the new Electoral Code. The following faction members signed the submission:

Oleksandr Aliksiichuk (voted for the Electoral Code);

Iryna Allakhverdiieva (voted "for");

Oleh Arsenyuk (voted "for");

Maksym Buzhanskyi (voted "for");

Olha Vasylevska-Smahliuk (did not vote for the law);

Oleksandr Haidu (voted "for");

Artem Dmytruk (voted "for");

Viktoriia Kinzburska (voted "for");

Oleksii Kovalov (voted "for");

Oleksandr Kunytskyi (voted "for");

Oleksii Leonov (voted "for");

Olena Lys (voted "for");

Heorhii Mazurashu (abstained during the vote on the law);

Serhii Nahorniak (voted "for");

Maksym Pashkovskyi (voted for the law and later withdrew his signature from the submission to the Constitutional Court);

Valerii Sterniichuk (voted "for", later stated he withdrew his signature);

Andrii Strikharskyi (voted for the law and later withdrew his signature from the submission to the Constitutional Court);

Vadym Strunevych (voted "for");

Oleh Tarasov (voted "for");

Serhii Cherniavskyi (did not vote for the law);

Yevhen Shevchenko (voted "for");

Liubov Shpak (was absent during the vote on the law).

With few exceptions, almost all signatories supported the Electoral Code, but later decided to challenge it in the Constitutional Court. "The people's deputies believe that excluding from legislation the possibility of holding elections by the majoritarian system restricts citizens' constitutional electoral rights, and also 'contains signs of usurpation of power.' The submission also challenges the transitional and final provisions of the Code, according to which the Law of Ukraine ‘On the Election of People's Deputies of Ukraine’ would lose force," said the Council's representative to the Constitutional Court, Olha Sovhiria.

In the spring of 2020 year the Verkhovna Rada adopted two related laws. The "anti-Kolomoyskyi" law makes it impossible to annul a decision on nationalization or liquidation of a bank, as well as to return unfair compensation from the budget to the former owners. To quickly adopt it in the second reading (about 16 thousand amendments were submitted) parliament amended the rules of procedure to allow reducing the time for considering amendments on the floor.

Petitions to the Constitutional Court were filed on both initiatives. Although both bills were initiated by the mono-majority and supported by the president, some "Servant of the People" members questioned the constitutionality of the adopted decisions.

The following "Servant of the People" MPs signed the submission on the constitutionality of the banking law:

Oleksandr Aliksiichuk (abstained during the vote on the law);

Roman Babii (abstained during the vote);

Vladyslav Borodin (was absent during the vote);

Maksym Buzhanskyi (voted "against");

Olha Vasylevska-Smahliuk (voted "against");

Serhii Demchenko (abstained during the vote);

Oleh Dunda (did not vote);

Viktoriia Kinzburska (abstained);

Oleksii Kovalov (did not vote);

Oleksandr Kunytskyi (abstained);

Anastasiia Liashenko (abstained);

Oleksandr Matusievych (abstained);

Oleksii Movchan (did not vote);

Eduard Proshchuk (abstained);

Viacheslav Rubliov (abstained);

Oleksandr Trukhin (voted for the law);

Ihor Fris (voted "against");

Dmytro Chornyi (did not vote);

Serhii Shvets (did not vote).

"The authors of the submission believe that the challenged provisions of the mentioned legislative acts give the National Bank of Ukraine, the Deposit Guarantee Fund and related state institutions a preference in appealing their administrative acts over other participants in the judicial process. In addition, in the deputies' opinion, the changes introduced by the law have leveled the principle of the rule of law, the basics of adversarial proceedings and equality of participants in the judicial process, and thus violated the right to a fair trial and effective judicial protection of plaintiffs in cases concerning the appeal of the mentioned administrative acts," the Constitutional Court reported.

Six members of the "Servant of the People" faction decided to challenge in the Constitutional Court the amendments to the rules of procedure made for the sake of the "anti-Kolomoyskyi" law:

Olha Vasylevska-Smahliuk (abstained during the vote on the law);

Serhii Demchenko (abstained);

Maksym Zuiev (abstained);

Oleksandr Matusievych (was absent);

Eduard Proshchuk (abstained);

Viacheslav Rubliov (was absent).

In November 2020 year 50 deputies submitted to the Constitutional Court a petition on the constitutionality of several presidential decrees appointing members of the National Commission that regulates energy and utilities. Among them were decrees signed not only by Petro Poroshenko, but also by Volodymyr Zelensky.

"The Constitution of Ukraine does not contain any powers of the president of Ukraine to form central executive bodies and appoint to positions in such bodies," believe the deputies, among whom were several members of the pro-presidential faction. The submission was signed by:

Liudmyla Buimister;

Viktoriia Vagner;

Yurii Kamelchuk;

Pavlo Pavlysh;

Mykyta Poturaiev;

Arsenii Pushkarenko;

Taras Tarasenko.

In October last year the Constitutional Court received a submission from 50 deputies who challenged the constitutionality of some amendments to the law on local self-government, as well as two Cabinet resolutions. The amendments to the law were initiated by a group of "Servant of the People" deputies, and among those who signed the submission were several of their colleagues:

Andrii Bohdanets (supported the law on local self-government);

Oleksandr Horobets (voted "for");

Andrii Zhupanin (voted "for");

Marian Zablotskyi (voted "for");

Andrii Zadorozhnyi (voted "for");

Yevhen Petruniak (voted "for");

Dmytro Pryputen (voted "for");

Oleh Seminskyi (voted "for");

Dmytro Solomchuk (voted "for");

Sviatoslav Yurash (voted "for").

The authors of the submission believe that some provisions in the law create confusion in defining the concept of "territorial community," substitute the national territorial structure. In addition, the deputies consider the forced liquidation of territorial communities or their removal from resolving local issues unlawful. At the same time, all the "Servant of the People" members who signed the document had supported the law in parliament.