On June 7 Verkhovna Rada passed the bill On the Election of People’s Deputies of Ukraine by 289 votes, and two days later President Kuchma announced he would veto it on the grounds that it will limit citizens’ right to choose. The law sets out that 335 new-convocation people’s deputies are to be elected on party tickets in the proportional representation constituencies and 115 in first-past-the-post ones. It was impossible to strictly observe the earlier-suggested 75% to 25% ratio because such a division of 450 parliamentary seats would have meant 325.5 and 112.5 deputies. This version of the law was opposed by the Labor Ukraine, Democratic Union, Solidarity, and Regions of Ukraine groups.
As is known, Verkhovna Rada earlier failed to override the President’s veto of the bill on an exclusively proportional representation election on May 17, following which the relevant parliamentary committee drafted a new version of the law taking into account the head of state’s proposals.
Also on June 7 the parliament recommended the president to dismiss Vadym Dolhanov, chief executive of the National Television and Radio Company, and Anatoly Zasukha, chairman of the Kyiv oblast administration. The former has faced accusations that the broadcast organization he runs has ignored the resolution on Verkhovna Rada session coverage, while the latter was blamed for irregularities during the mayoral elections in Vasylkiv, Kyiv oblast.
