The Verkhovna Rada registered bill No. 13464, which, under the guise of technical changes to the electoral code, can radically change the rules of the electoral game. The document initiated by part of the deputies from the “servant of the people” and “Fatherland” is already criticized - both the public and some parliamentarians. The reason is in an attempt to reduce the influence of voters on the formation of parliament and strengthen the role of political parties.

The support analyzed the document and found: under the formulations that seem purely procedural, there are changes that can seriously change the principle of distribution of mandates in favor of the leadership of parties. We are talking about a decrease in the real influence of personal voting. This will allow political forces to independently determine which of the candidates will fall into parliament.

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Although the 2025th, most likely, will not be the year of the elections-due to the ongoing war, a millionth internal and external migration, destroyed infrastructure and danger to voters-preparation for them must be started in advance. Otherwise, the state will encounter new challenges, which, as always, "

On July 10, 30 people's deputies submitted the bill: 18 - from the " Among them are the first deputy head of the faction Andrei Motovilovets, the head of the relevant committee Andrei Klochko and the brother of the speaker - Nikolai Stefanchuk. The head of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk joined the work.

Despite the name, changes do not concern military risks or voting features during hostilities. They are focused exclusively on the redistribution of influence in the electoral system. That is, more control for parties, less for voters.

Rules for the first post -war?

The emergence of the bill caused an ambiguous reaction. Mentions about elections during the war appeared in the media, although in the project itself we are not talking about this.

Earlier, in June, Ruslan Stefanchuk announced legislative changes regarding post -war elections, which should solve a number of systemic issues, namely the vote of military personnel, Ukrainians abroad, etc..

The criticism of the project also unfolded in the comments under the Facebook-set of the people's deputy from the “servant of the people”, the head of the subcommittee on elections, referenda and other forms of direct democracy Alina Zagoruykoko. Ruslan Stefanchuk had to answer, who noted that this is not a draft law on the first post -war elections, but point issues in a small bill.

The people's deputy from the " In particular, he was dissatisfied with the proposed level of partization, since the bill provides for the introduction of a proportional system in local elections for all huge. Bezgin, on the contrary, is a supporter of the expansion of the majority system for bulk with a number of up to 50 thousand voters (instead of the current threshold of 10 thousand). However, according to him, the norms regarding local self -government agreed to exclude from further consideration.

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But the people's deputy from the " However, what fair approaches and standards are it about, the deputy did not specify.

It remains in question how the general initiative of the " We do not know exactly why this bill appeared and why right now. So far, the likelihood of successful negotiations on the end of the war remains low, so the prospects for holding post -war elections in the near future are very foggy. However, it can be assumed that each of the initiators expects certain advantages. Among them, for example, there may be an introduction of a more comfortable system for passing a party to parliament and the search for potential candidates and sponsors, which, in particular, will be able to ensure financial and organizational resources for conducting a campaign for themselves and the party, etc..

Nuance first: where the voices go?

According to the Electoral Code adopted in 2019, the following parliamentary elections should be held according to a proportional system with open lists. It was first applied in local elections in 2020. The mechanics of the system are as follows. The party forms a national list - for example, out of 450 candidates - and distributes them into regional lists. There are 25 such regions, they are formed on an administrative-territorial principle (exception-united in the southern region of the Kherson region, ARC and the city of Sevastopol). From 5 to 18 people moves out in each list.

In addition to the vote for the party as a whole, the voter may indicate the number of a particular candidate in the ballot, affecting this way to his position in the list. The more votes for a specific candidate, the higher his chances to go to parliament.

This actually is the first change. Now, if the voter votes for the party, but does not indicate the candidate number, he agrees with the order of the candidates that the party itself formed in the region. When it comes to the distribution of mandates, such votes will be distributed precisely among the candidates included in the regional list of the party.

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The bill proposes to change this rule. If the voter did not indicate a specific candidate, his vote will not be credited to the regional, but to the national list. It is this list that the party forms centrally, without any influence of the voter on the location of the candidates.

At first glance, that here is? The party will receive the same voice. But in practice, it is through a nationwide list that she will be able to promote convenient candidates for herself, the passage of which the voter did not influence personally. At the same time, the number of people elected by regional lists will decrease, and the weight of the closed list will increase even more.

In the local elections of 2020, 59% of deputies were elected according to the lists. And this despite the fact that the voices for the party remained within the region.

The problem is also strengthened by the fact that millions of Ukrainians are abroad. They are not able to vote for a specific candidate at all - only for the party. This means that all their voices will automatically strengthen the nationwide list. The assessment of the number of Ukrainians abroad differs and can be from 5.2 to 8.9 million.

The requirement of the minimum number of candidates, which can be nominated in the electoral districts, is also canceled. This allows you to form " The goal is to increase the share of the votes that will be directed to the distribution of mandates, again on a closed national list.

Suppose that the party puts in the region two candidates instead of the most nine. Political power receives voices, which are enough to obtain three or more mandates. Thus, the list is exhausted, but the voices are not lost, but are transferred to the general batch basket. Voila - the desired candidate passes to the Rada.

The second nuance: “steam locomotives” of our region.

Another feature of the bill concerns guaranteed candidates - the first nine people on the national list, which are guaranteed to become deputies if the party overcomes the barrier of 5%. The authors of the draft law propose that these candidates (except for the first number) can simultaneously enter the regional list. At the same time, according to which the deputy will be elected to the parliament - national or regional - the party will decide.

In fact, this will allow parties to increase ratings in the right regions using recognizable people. So they will provide deputies with their “vips” due to guarantees of a national list.

Moreover, the first numbers in regional lists will have a privileged right to receive a mandate. When they distribute mandates in regional lists, candidates will be placed to reduce the votes received - from more to less. However, the first numbers will be held before all, even if other candidates will gain more personal votes.

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So, the candidate of the “steam locomotive” from the national list is logical not to put the first number. After receiving the votes, he chooses a passage on a national list, leaving a mandate in the region for a local, less rating candidate. Similar technology has already been used in local elections in 2020. The rating people's deputies headed lists to the regional Rada, and then refused the mandate of the local deputy.

We assume the exception by which the mandate automatically receives a candidate who will gain the number of personal votes no less than the electoral quota. Given the experience of local elections in practice, these will be very rare cases.

Third nuance: justice for the regions.

The key interesting point in the bill is that it appeals to the need to rightly represent the regions in parliament. The authors propose to establish the maximum number of candidates in the list in proportion to the number of voters separately for each election region. For example, for the city of Kyiv, these are 28 candidates, for the Donetsk region - 40, for the Kirovograd - 9, Poltava - 14, Kharkov - 26.

However, the number of mandates that parties will receive on regional lists will still depend on voters, since the price of the mandate (electoral quota) will be considered for the whole of Ukraine. That is, by the time of establishing the results of the elections, no one will know how many deputies in parliament will represent, for example, the Poltava region.

It seems that the equal representation of the regions can be provided, for example, by establishing the corresponding number of mandates for the regions, and not the number of candidates in the lists.

Another question is to consolidate just so many candidates for each region. Probably, the numbers given in the document are formed on the basis of the data of the state voter register (GRI). However, this information is irrelevant, since it does not take into account the migration of the population since the beginning of a full -scale invasion of Russia. As of June 2025, 32.8 million voters with the electoral address were included in Griba. Most of all in Donetsk (2.9 million) and Dnepropetrovsk (2.3 million) regions and the city of Kyiv (2 million), and the least in the Chernivtsi region (664 thousand) and the city of Sevastopol (264 thousand). In the foreign district there were 393 thousand voters.

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The introduction of the representation of regions in the electoral system should be based on current electoral data. Considering that internal migration may continue in the future, to fix the number of candidates in the regions at the height of the war seems to be an erroneous approach.

Finally, the bill No. 13464 can be considered a breakdown of the soil for how the country can perceive the rules of the game. Due to procedural changes, parties will provide more opportunities to control the passage of candidates for parliament, bypassing the influence of voters. It seems that these changes lie in the plane of political calculation and indicate that the authors want to maintain the formal openness of the electoral model, in practice making it even more closed.

Public resonance around the bill demonstrates how important the issues of the first post -war elections are. Preparations for them need to start now, and not, say, a month before their announcement, otherwise there is a risk of receiving a number of innovations without public discussion. In any case, you can hold elections only after the end of the war.

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