The law on a referendum is cunningly depriving Ukrainians of democracy
The recently adopted Supreme Law on democracy through an all-Ukrainian referendum will, at best, serve PR or other government goals, but will not ensure real democracy.
Political scientist Valentin Gaidai stated this at a press conference in Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“These will be selective initiatives - if something needs to be lobbied to the authorities, maybe even promoted, then these initiatives will probably be accepted. But what was the philosophy behind the adoption of this law? That it is the people who must express their opinion on this or that issue in a direct referendum, in direct democracy.
But it turns out that the adoption of this law makes democracy impossible. After all, when the Constitution of Ukraine was adopted, the population of Ukraine was about 50 million people. And three million was one figure in percentage terms. Now there are different estimates of the population; there is still no population census. How many of us are there – 40, 35, 30? And if there are 30 million of us, then it turns out that the 3 million needed for the referendum is 10%. That's a lot.
Plus the norm for collecting signatures is in 2/3 of the regions of Ukraine. The question arises: what to do with Crimea and part of Donbass?
Any person, not necessarily an expert or politician, but a simple layman, after sober reflection, can say that this is all fiction. In practice, the people will not be able to exercise their right to direct democracy. It is obvious. And it is unlikely that our deputies, including those from the so-called mono-majority, are aiming to do anything for the benefit of the people. Perhaps for the benefit of some people, but not the Ukrainians,” Gaidai said.
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