Party of Regions against lowering election threshold

The Party of Regions faction stands against lowering election threshold from 5% to 3%, as recommended by the OSCE/ODIHR. 

"Reducing the 5-percent threshold is not politically expedient. In the last parliamentary elections, all parties, which entered the Parliament, overcame 10%. The rest gained less than 1.5% of votes," MP from the Party of Regions faction Dmytro Shpenov said, ForUm correspondent reports.

According to Shpenov, the parties must be fundamental, not temporary. "The party, which cannot overcome, should leave the political arena," he said.

He also noted that the Party of Regions members do not support the proposal to extend the powers of district electoral commissions. "This is pointless. The district electoral commissions do not work on a regular basis, they work only during the election period as opposed to the CEC, where professionals, constantly studying the legislation, work," MP said.

Shpenova added that the PR will not mind returning the right of political forces to unite in the blocs to participate in the elections, but the threshold for them should be higher than for the parties. "If the threshold for parties is 5%, then for the blocs it must be a minimum of 7-8%," he said.