Bill on referendum may be submitted to VR in early February – first deputy speaker

First deputy speaker and president’s representative in the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, stated this during a meeting of the Agenda-Setting Council on January 13, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

“The Verkhovna Rada Chairman has instructed me to set up a working group on developing bills on people’s power. This working group has already met six times - we have developed the whole structure of bills related to people’s power. It is not resolved by one law on referendum, but the bill has become the first one to be developed. I am deeply convinced that it will be submitted to the Verkhovna Rada at the beginning of the next session. Nobody will postpone it,” Stefanchuk said.

As Ukrinform reported, the Verkhovna Rada on September 3, 2019 included in the agenda of the VR session and sent to the Constitutional Court the presidential bill, No.1015, "On Amendments to Article 93 of the Constitution of Ukraine (on the legislative initiative of the people)”.

According to an explanatory note, the bill proposes that Article 93 of the Constitution of Ukraine be amended and be stated in the following wording: “The right of legislative initiative in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine belongs to the people, the President of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the People’s Deputies of Ukraine and is exercised by them in the cases and in the order determined by the Constitution of Ukraine and the laws of Ukraine. The law shall be adopted in accordance with the requirements of the legislative procedure established by the Constitution of Ukraine and the laws of Ukraine”.

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