The Verkhovna Rada lacked deputies for voting: even requests to award fallen soldiers were not supported

On November 12, the Verkhovna Rada failed to support a number of important decisions due to insufficient votes. There were no more than 223 people’s deputies in the session hall, while at least 226 votes are required to pass most decisions. In particular, the parliament was unable to send requests to the president regarding the posthumous awarding of Ukrainian defenders.

There were not enough votes even for appeals regarding the awarding of military personnel

During the plenary session, the people’s deputies considered a number of requests to President Volodymyr Zelensky, in particular regarding the awarding of state awards to deceased Ukrainian servicemen.

Among them were the initiatives of People’s Deputy Yana Zinkevich regarding the posthumous awarding of Vitalina Yarovenko and Eva Reuter with the Orders “For Courage” of the 3rd degree, as well as the awarding of the title of Hero of Ukraine to Vitaliy Hakal with the Order of the Gold Star.

In addition, parliamentarians considered an appeal regarding the posthumous awarding of the Ukrainian poet and public and political figure Rostyslav Bratun with the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise.

However, none of these requests received the necessary support to be sent to the head of state. From 206 to 223 deputies voted for the respective decisions.

It is worth noting that the procedure for sending a deputy request to the president involves a vote, for which the support of at least 226 parliamentarians is required.

Thus, the issue of state commemoration of the fallen defenders could not pass the parliamentary procedure due to a lack of votes.

The draft law on local self-government was also not supported

Another document that did not receive the required number of votes was draft law No. 15165, aimed at improving the legal conditions for the activities of self-organization bodies of the population.

The document provides for improving the mechanisms for citizen participation in resolving local issues, in particular through house, street and neighborhood committees.

During the vote on the basis of the bill, 222 MPs supported it — four less than the required number.

The proposal to send the document for a second first reading also did not receive sufficient support: 224 MPs voted for it.

At the same time, 231 MPs supported returning the bill to its initiators for further work.

What decisions did the Verkhovna Rada still adopt?

Despite the lack of votes during some votes, the parliament managed to support a number of international and European integration initiatives.

In particular:

245 votes — for the adoption in the first reading of the bill on cooperation between the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine and the European agency Frontex.

243 votes — for the ratification of the agreement on Ukraine’s participation in the European space program Copernicus.

238 votes — for the ratification of the convention with Australia on the avoidance of double taxation.

At the same time, draft resolution No. 15188 on the exercise by the heads of military administrations in the Volnovakha and Mariupol districts of the Donetsk region of the powers provided for by the legislation on martial law received only 223 votes and was not adopted.

The problem of parliamentary voting

The results of the meeting on November 12 once again demonstrated how important the participation of deputies in voting remains for the work of the Verkhovna Rada.

Even with more than 200 votes, individual decisions cannot be adopted without the minimum necessary support of 226 people’s deputies.

Of particular interest is the situation with requests for posthumous awards of Ukrainian military personnel, which were not sent to the president.

At the same time, the parliament continued its legislative work and supported a number of decisions related to international cooperation and European integration of Ukraine.