Wonders in Parliament

Wonders in Parliament

Some deputies vote while they are on business trips or ill. Such data is provided by the official website of the Verkhovna Rada. 17 March 2015 of the year. Evening session of the Verkhovna Rada. Written registration of people's deputies (when they sign in person before the session) shows: deputies Vitaliy Barvynenko, Andriy Lozovyi, Ivan Kyrylenko – on business trips. Deputy Vasyl Nimchenko – ill.

But that same evening, during electronic registration of deputies in the chamber (inserting the electronic card into the "Rada" system), it turns out that the named deputies are present in the chamber.

That evening in Parliament they voted on the Resolution to determine certain districts, cities, towns, and villages of Donetsk and Luhansk regions where a special regime of local self-government is introduced (No2374). Absent (due to illness) deputy Vasyl Nimchenko votes in the Parliament chamber "For." Absent (due to a business trip) deputy Andriy Lozovyi votes "Against." Later, that same deputy Lozovyi votes "For" another Resolution recognizing certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions as temporarily occupied territories. That day deputy Vitaliy Barvynenko's card voted only 1 time(s) "For" – the deployment on Ukrainian territory of an international operation to maintain peace and security. MiraclesThe people's deputy Vitaliy Barvynenko, former "regional," is now a member of the parliamentary group "Vidrodzhennia". Deputy Vasyl Nimchenko, formerly a judge of the Constitutional Court, is now a deputy from the "Opposition Bloc." Andriy Lozovyi is second on the list of the Radical Party of Oleh Liashko. Ivan Kyrylenko is from the "Batkivshchyna" faction. The latter is the only one of the four who did not vote but was simultaneously on a business trip and registered his deputy card in the Parliament chamber. 18 March these four deputies were again on business trips or ill, but the voting cards for deputies Vitaliy Barvynenko and Vasyl Nimchenko were registered in the Parliament chamber. As for the cards of Andriy Lozovyi and Ivan Kyrylenko — they were not registered this time. 19 March only Vasyl Nimchenko continued to be ill, and Andriy Lozovyi remained on a business trip, and their cards were not registered that day in the Verkhovna Rada chamber. Where were these 4 people's deputies on 17 March? On business trips or ill. In that case their cards were used to vote by other deputies. The Constitution, I remind you, explicitly says that a deputy must vote personally. The other option — these deputies really did vote or register in Parliament but were not on business trips and were not ill. Then this is deception or an error. I remind you, in the first 100 days of the new convocation of the Verkhovna Rada the "Chesno" movement found 28 cases of non-personal voting. Awaiting a true miracleThere are bills registered in the Verkhovna Rada to combat button-press voting. 1. Bill No1895, which provides punishment for button-press voters. Co-authors of the bill included experts from the Reanimation Package of Reforms and activists of the "Chesno" movement. The sanctions section provides a number of penalties, among them deprivation of a deputy's right to participate in 10 (in case of a repeat violation – 20) plenary sessions, deprivation of leadership positions in a committee with the loss of corresponding quotas for the faction, deprivation of the deputy's right to be included in international delegations, and publication of the fact of button-press voting on the VRU website and in "Holos Ukrayiny." 2. Bill No2064. Its authors are Yuriy Derevyanko, Boryslav Bereza, Volodymyr Parasiuk. They propose a fine from 1 thousand to 3 thousand non-taxable minimums with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for a period of two to five years (de facto deprivation of the mandate), and also establish criminal liability for non-personal voting. 3. Bill No1744. Authors – "Volia Narodu" deputies Serhiy Labaziuk and Volodymyr Lytvyn, Heorhiy Lohvynskyi from the "People's Front", Oleh Kuprienko from the Radical Party and Maksym Kuryachyi from BPP. It does not contain penalties for button-press voters; instead it introduces a touch-sensitive voting button, intended — according to the authors — to make non-personal voting impossible. Shortcomings and advantages of the bills, as well as their chances of adoption, are commented on by expert Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, a board member of "Transparency International Ukraine": "If one analyzes the anti-button-voting initiatives registered in parliament, the most clearly developed can be called No 1895. First, it clearly prescribes the procedure for recording the fact of non-personal voting, the responsibility of the Chair of the Verkhovna Rada for the procedure of correcting this violation, second, it will introduce really wide sanctions, namely: prohibition of participation in 10-session(s) and work of all VRU bodies during the time of these sessions with suspension of payments not only of salary but also other payments, restriction on holding positions in committees and official delegations. Also the system of notification about the act of button-press voting is the most fully recorded." "At the same time, the most likely to be adopted is Bill No 1744, which in fact only introduces a touch-sensitive button and establishes a 10-day (not sessions, but days) suspension from work in parliament with salary deductions for that time. On the plus side it is worth noting the recognition of registration in the electronic registration system (until now presence was recorded only by written registration) and the increase of the storage period for video and audio materials from 1 year to 5 years. Paradoxically, the initiators of this bill are Volodymyr Lytvyn and Serhiy Labaziuk, who voted for the "dictatorial laws" on 16 January. Since the bill establishes fairly mild sanctions and does not clarify the procedure for recording button-press voting, it has the greatest chance of being adopted," Yurchyshyn emphasizes. The expert believes the third bill has the least chance. Yurchyshyn notes that, considering the list of initiators and the provisions of the bill, which does not touch the procedure for recording the violation at all, this initiative can be considered purely political and populist. Serhiy Andrushko, "Chesno" movement

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