“These elections have been held under the special circumstances of war and have been more difficult, comparatively speaking, to the presidential elections,” said the Chairman of the Board of the All-Ukrainian Organization “The Committee of Voters of Ukraine” (CVU) Oleksiy Koshel during a Press Conference at the International Media Center in Kyiv, on 28 October.  

But the future coalition of the new Parliament has a shared goal for cooperation — the European Union Association Agreement.

In addition, the state should appoint a representative of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis (executive body) as a Deputy Speaker in Parliament to demonstrate its willingness to support these citizens. Also, the parliament should adopt a law on opposition parties in order to provide a clear framework for their role within the parliament.

According to political analyst and political adviser Alexey Holobutskiy, it is worth emphasizing that these parliamentary elections have been one of the most democratic in Ukraine to date. “There are no opposite political poles, as had been the case before — all parties are of more or less European orientation.” But other problems, such as bribery of voters, cannot be solved even by strengthening criminal responsibility, because political advisers will invent alternatives to circumvent the legal process.

“For the time being, the Ukrainian population is so poor that they will be ready to sell their votes for money,” making it impossible to eliminate these kinds of violations, Holobutskiy explained.

According to Deputy Director General of CVU Natalia Lynnyk, life in Ukraine is taking place at a very dynamic pace now, with rapid shifts in political opinion. Since the presidential elections in May, Lynnyk explains that it is possible to assume that Petro Poroshenko has lost “about 30% of his previous rating.”

Those parties with a clear party structure (as opposed to parties based around a single personality), such as the “Opposition Bloc” (formerly the “Party of Regions”) and the “People’s Front” (formerly the “Front of Changes”) were more successful. The “Self Help” party (“Samopomich”) became one of the frontrunners because it has no negative political background.

According to CVU estimation, the one third of parliamentary members will be new. CVU is advocating changes to the electoral law in order to establish a fully proportional system with open lists, among other reforms.