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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Members of parliament are proposed to be given 10 minutes to move to shelter, after which they can continue reviewing bills and voting.
Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk has prepared a draft resolution that provides for the possibility of continuing plenary sessions of parliament in the shelter during air raid alerts or when information about increased threat is received. This is reported by Glavcom, citing the draft.
As noted in the explanatory note, due to the increasing intensity, duration, and frequency of Russian air attacks, plenary sessions of the Verkhovna Rada must be regularly interrupted. The authors of the document believe this creates a risk to the continuity of the lawmaking process.
Currently, when an air raid warning is announced, members of parliament and staff of the Verkhovna Rada Administration must move to a safe shelter, and the plenary session is interrupted.
The new draft provides a different procedure. After the announcement of an air raid warning or upon receipt of information about increased danger, deputies will be allotted 10 minutes to move to the shelter. After the interruption, the plenary session will continue directly there.
For work in the shelter, an electronic system is proposed. Deputies will need to register personally, sign up for speeches, and vote. The system should operate in a way that prevents one person voting on behalf of another.
Deputies will be able to vote on issues on the agenda during such a session only via the electronic system. The order of its use must be approved by the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada.
If the air raid warning ends before the consideration of the agenda is finished, deputies may not have to return to the session hall. The draft allows work in the shelter to continue until all planned issues for that day have been considered.
To implement the new mechanism, it is proposed to revoke the rule of the Verkhovna Rada resolution from 7 February 2023 of the year, which provides for an mandatory interruption of the plenary session after an air raid alarm.
In the explanatory note, the need for changes is linked to regular and prolonged air alerts in Kyiv, through which the parliament loses part of the time allocated for plenary work.
The document states the aim of ensuring the continuous exercise by the Verkhovna Rada of constitutional powers under martial law and the constant threat of Russian attacks.
According to the explanatory note, no additional expenditures from the state budget are envisaged for implementing the proposed changes.
As a reminder, earlier the Verkhovna Rada presented an alternative format for working the parliament during air alerts. On the basement first floor of the building, in the conference hall and adjacent rooms, workplaces for deputies were set up. Additional screens were installed to monitor the consideration of bills, and a separate place for journalists was provided. According to Stefanchuk, this format was developed due to the increase in the number of air alerts in Kyiv.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Робота Верховної Ради в укритті. Стефанчук підготував законопроєкт – Підозра". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: AgroDay – uncensored on the main issues.
