Home > 1.2 Equal suffrage > UKRAINE - Opinion on the Law on National Referendum
 
 
 
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Paragraph 34
 

II. Comments on the test of the law


C. Some specific comments on the concrete articles on the new law on referendum.


3. Equality of treatment between the supporters and the opponents or a referendum


Article 24 of the law provides a list of “parties to the respective national referendum process”. It is surprising that national observers other than representatives of the initiative group of the referendum are not mentioned (the same observation can be made as to the list of observers provided in Article 65 of the law). This omission is surprising since Article 70.2 clearly establishes the right of citizens to carry out “any activities that encourage voters to vote in favour or against the referendum, including any printed, verbal, sound, audio and visual types and forms of ideological influence on people not prohibited by law that directly or indirectly draw one’s attention to the referendum issue […]”. The absence of concrete provisions allowing different parties and citizens to participate more actively in the referendum process could create pre-conditions for unequal treatment of supporters and opponents of a proposed referendum.