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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Over 6 years of the Kyiv City Council's work, the mandates of 23 deputies ended, yet not a single one was recalled at the initiative of voters. Even if Kyiv residents collect the required signatures, the final decision remains with the political party.
The civic initiative "Holka" believes this system limits the community’s influence over elected representatives.
Why did deputies leave the Kyiv City Council?
Five deputies resigned their mandates early in the term, 12 resigned of their own accord, three were recalled by parties. Three other deputies died or were killed.
Among them are former Kyiv mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko, who died from complications after COVID-19, Opposition Platform — For Life deputy Serhiy Mamoyan, who was killed in a car accident, and European Solidarity representative Serhiy Ilnytskyi, who died defending Ukraine.
Over six years political parties used their right to recall deputies four times. Two cases were related to corruption scandals.
In particular, Servant of the People recalled Vladyslav Trubitsyn after he left the country amid a corruption investigation. UDAR decided to recall the head of the land committee Mykhailo Terentiev after the NABU operation "Clean City." However, he retained his mandate thanks to a court injunction securing the lawsuit. Still, the Kyiv City Council has not made a decision for over a year to remove him from the position of committee head.
Two other recalls occurred for different reasons. Batkivshchyna recalled Mykhailo Kovalchuk after his statement alleging that mobilization has no legal force. European Solidarity decided on the recall of Volodymyr Levin, explaining it by his violation of the faction’s jointly developed position.
Why can’t voters independently recall deputies?
Legislation allows voters to initiate the procedure to recall a local council deputy. In Kyiv this requires collecting about 4 thousand signatures. However, even after collecting the signatures the final decision remains with the political party.
The head of the civic initiative "Holka," Iryna Fedoriv, believes this system limits Kyiv residents’ influence over their elected representatives.
We have a paradoxical situation: Kyiv residents elect deputies, but in fact cannot directly influence them to protect the capital’s interests,
she said.
According to Fedoriv, the community should be able to independently recall its representatives without party permission. At the same time, voters should be given tools to block party decisions to recall deputies they trust.
"Holka" also pointed to shortcomings in the Electoral Code that affected the results of local elections. Under the open-list system’s intent, voters were supposed to determine not only support for parties but also which candidates would receive mandates.
However, in Kyiv for a candidate to move up the party list thanks to personal votes, they had to receive 25% of the electoral quota — almost 1 200 votes. Instead, a threshold of 5% would have required only about 240 votes.
Because of the high threshold, personal votes could change the order of candidates on lists only in isolated cases. As a result, party leadership retained the decisive role in allocating mandates.
Recall that on 17 October a rally took place near the Kyiv City State Administration building demanding the resignation of Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Several hundred people joined the action, dissatisfied with the capital’s preparation for winter and the work of city authorities.
Among the reasons for the protest they also cite illegal construction, the destruction of historic buildings, and possible increases in public transport fares. Representative of the movement "People’s Initiative" Vitaliy Dudin said the authorities must act in the interests of the majority of Kyiv residents, not big business.
Protesters were additionally outraged by the recent transport collapse in the capital and the shutdown of the metro due to a power outage.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "23 депутати залишили Київраду за шість років: чому виборці не відкликали жодного ". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Channel 24.
