The Law gives surprisingly broad rights to political parties with a faction in the Verkhovna Rada (Article 24). Such parties are entitled to an electronic copy of the Register edited to show the voter’s name, address, date and place of birth and place and conditions of voting. According to the Law, this is done with a view to enhancing ‘public control’ over the Register: the version of the Register provided to the political parties is to be used to check the Register’s completeness and the reliability of voters’ registered personal data. The circumstances in which a political party would seek to verify the completeness or reliability of the Register are far from obvious. Political parties tend to act for political motives and the parties may seek to use the Register for partisan purposes, perhaps as a tool for campaigning. The implementation of this provision will need to be monitored with careful scrutiny.
