Change of the Election Legislation as an Element of Election Technologies: Application Practices in Ukraine

Abstract

The article explores the consequences of changes in the Ukrainian electoral legislation and examines causal relationships between changes in electoral systems and qualitative innovations in the political environment. Usually, changes to the electoral legislation took place on the eve of the next election of each electoral cycle, which gives grounds to claim that this has become a kind of electoral technology in the political struggle, since preference was given to the electoral system under which the party in power could gain the maximum number of votes. Disregarding the advice of international election monitoring organizations and leveling the expert opinion of domestic civil organizations, politicians dependent on representatives of financial and industrial groups continued to manipulate gaps in the legislation and did not codify the election legislation until December 2019. This article analyzes how the election systems evolved, as well as the main motives of legislative innovations and the reasons for choosing the optimal election system for Ukrainian society.