Selon le « International Centre for Policy Studies » (ICPS), l’Ukraine devrait suivre l »exemple occidental pour former ses listes électorales en se basant sur des élections préliminaires destinées à rendre les partis politiques plus efficaces et plus démocratiques.
Political parties in Ukraine are « key players » in the formulation and implementation of government and local policies – and the « main focus of public demand for democracy » following the reform of the electoral system in 2004, argues the paper, published on 3 September.
The paper identifies three main obstacles to the democratisation of Ukraine’s political parties:
- A shortage of human resources – including the absence of large-scale parties with « well-developed » grassroots organisations and lack of « competent public individuals or well-known politicians » – complicates the organisation of election campaigns at the local level.
- A « regionalised and limited » voter base – parties dependent on the financial and human resources of specific regions or ideological projects find it « difficult » to expand their electoral base and « stop being parties that represent only one part of the country. »
- Undemocratic procedures that lack transparency – closed electoral lists force voters to choose a party « brand » rather than individual candidates.
ICPS believes that increasing the effectiveness and democratic credentials of the political parties will mean « getting closer to voters at all levels and gaining their trust » and argue that this could be done by democratising the candidate nomination process by basing party lists on primaries, states the paper.
ICPS gives several reasons for instituting primaries:
- To strengthen party lists in order to win elections.
- To increase party membership and voter support.
- To make the election process more democratic.
- To strengthen the link between a party and civil society.
- To counteract the party leadership’s determination to « reduce the power of mid-ranking officials. »
Despite there being « no ideal model of primary », the paper concludes that primaries are an « effective political technology » that parties can use to democratise as well as either increase or decrease the role of ideology in their identity.