The Court passed to the in-camera part of the plenary session in the case of Serhii Pozdnyakov
On June 17, 2020 at the plenary session of the Second Senate of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the case on the constitutional complaint of Serhii Pozdnyakov was considered in the form of a written proceedings.
The applicant challenges the compliance of the the provisions of Articles 3.2, 3.3 of the Law of Ukraine “On Local Elections” of July 14, 2015 № 595 – VІІІ as amended (hereinafter – the Law № 595), Article 8.2 of the Law of Ukraine “On the State Register of Voters” of February 22, 2007 № 698 – V as amended (hereinafter – the Law № 698) with the Constitution of Ukraine.
The mentioned provisions of the Law № 595 stipulate that the identity document confirming citizenship and certifying the place of residence of a voter in local elections are: passport of a citizen of Ukraine; temporary identity card of a citizen of Ukraine (for persons recently admitted to the citizenship of Ukraine); the affiliation of a citizen to the relevant territorial community and his residence in the relevant territory is determined by his registered place of residence.
According to Article 8.2 of the Law № 698, the voter's voting address is the address at which his place of residence is registered in accordance with the Law of Ukraine "On Freedom of Movement and Free Choice of Residence in Ukraine".
According to the judge-rapporteur Halyna Yurovska, in the petitioner’s opinion, the disputed provisions of these laws do not comply with a number of provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine, as the content and scope of "constitutional suffrage" of citizens is narrowed, which leads to discrimination on the basis of residence.
The judge-rapporteur stated that in order to ensure full and objective consideration of the case, inquiries were sent to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as to a number of higher education institutions, research institutions and members of the Research Advisory Council of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine with a request to express their positions on issues raised in the constitutional complaint.
Serhii Pozdnyakov, the subject of the right to constitutional complaint, was present at the plenary session.
In this case, the Court proceeded to the in-camera part of the plenary session. The public part of the plenary session is available on the official website of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine through the link: http://ccu.gov.ua/kategoriya/2020.
