The decentralization reform should continue, MPs’ immunity should be canceled, and the malicious judges should be cleared off the judicial system – such a position was voiced by representatives of the political parties, in particular All-Ukrainian Union “Fatherland”, Voice, European Solidarity, Strength and Honor and Ukrainian Strategy, on June 27 in a discussion with the Electoral Council UA and the Reanimation Package of Reforms Coalition (RPR).

Government Reform 

“At present, the powers of directors, deputy ministers and state secretaries in the ministries are not clearly distributed, therefore conflicts and misunderstandings often arise,” said Pavlo Kukhta, a representative of the Voice Party.

Rostyslav Pavlenko, MP candidate from the European Solidarity, believes that some functions of ministries should be delegated to non-governmental organizations. “And the ministries themselves should be deprived of a number of functions which are not typical thereof, such as management of large state-owned enterprises,” added Volodymyr Bondarenko, on behalf of the Ukrainian Strategy.

It is ineffective to reform the Government through laws only, because it does not guarantee the appointment of competent officers, stresses the MP from the Fatherland, Serhii Vlasenko.

Decentralization of Power

The power decentralization reform should be completed, which was supported by the representatives of all political forces. And the Ukrainian Strategy proposed to consolidate its achievements in the Constitution.

The European Solidarity wants to introduce prefect positions that would control the allocation of funds from public budgets, and “Fatherland” wants to delegate to the Presidential Representative in the regions only those areas that are within the competence of the Head of State. At the same time, district councils and state administrations should be preserved with a significant decrease in powers.

Olena Sotnyk, MP candidate from the Strength and Honor also talks about the completion of the administrative-territorial structure reform: “The head of the administrative-territorial unit should be elected by voting”.

Parliament and Electoral Law Reform

Most of the parties’ representatives supported the introduction of a proportional electoral system with open lists and responsibility for the “piano voting”, as well as the abolition of the immunity of MPs.

Vlasenko stressed that “it is necessary to find out the exact number of the population of Ukraine to proportionally determine the number of MPs representing their interests in the Parliament – this could be approximately 350-300 people.”

Ihor Aleksieiev, MP candidate from the Ukrainian Strategy, generally considers it essential to reduce the number of MPs to 250 people. The Parliament’s Rules of Procedure must consolidate the status of the coalition and the opposition, say in Power and Honor.

According to the Voice Party representative Roman Suprun, “piano voting” should be eliminated through the introduction of touch-sensitive buttons with fingerprint sensors for voting. It is also necessary to introduce monetary sanctions for the absenteeism if MPs miss 25% of the voting sessions and deprivation of the mandate if MPs miss 50% of the voting sessions.

Anti-Corruption Bodies Reform 

Reboot the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the intelligence service should be deprived of functions that are not typical thereof – for example, investigation of economic crimes. This opinion is supported by almost all the representatives of political parties taking part in the discussion.

“We are a society that is mentally focused on corruption. The quality of the fight against corruption is influenced by the competence of anti-corruption officials, rather than the number of these bodies,” emphasized Vlasenko.

It is necessary to introduce an automatic electronic system for checking tax declarations of officials,” suggests Sotnyk.

Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, MP candidate from the Voice Party, announced the need to adopt an anti-corruption strategy with the involvement of community experts. In addition, it is necessary to reinstate Art. 368-2 of the Criminal Code on illegal enrichment.

Almost all parties advocated the reboot of the High Council of Justice and the High Qualification Commission of Judges.