Legal construction of electoral rights in the Constitution of Ukraine: issues of transformation in the context of European integration

The article is devoted to determining the content of the legal construction of electoral rights, which is embedded in the text of the Constitution of Ukraine, as well as the issue of the possibility of its change in the aspect of Ukraine’s European integration. The author draws attention to the fact that the provisions of Section II of the Constitution of Ukraine determine a different composition of subjects of the exercise of political rights. At the same time, the constitutional legal construction of electoral rights, in particular the definition of their subjects, determines in their list exclusively citizens of Ukraine both for the exercise of the right to vote and for the exercise of the right to be elected. The article emphasizes the fallacy of the assumptions that exist in academic circles regarding the conflicting content of the provisions of Art. 140 and Art. 141 of the Constitution of Ukraine, according to the content of which judgments are allowed that foreigners can also be subjects of electoral rights in local elections, taking into account the use of the category «residents» in the mentioned articles. The author emphasizes that the definition of the provisions of Section XI of the Constitution of Ukraine as subjects of the right to vote in local elections of the category “residents” does not mean the possibility of foreigners or stateless persons to participate in the elections, but means that the subjects of electoral rights in elections to local self-government bodies are citizens of Ukraine who are residents of the relevant territorial communities where local elections are held. This conclusion is based on the assertion that legal constructions provide for the disclosure of the true content of legal phenomena through a systematic analysis of the norms of the Constitution, starting from the general and moving on to the specific. Meanwhile, the article draws attention to the issue that Ukraine’s European integration requires the transformation of the existing legal construction of electoral rights, in particular one of its elements - subjects of electoral rights in local elections. The changes should provide for the recognition of not only citizens of Ukraine, but also foreigners (EU citizens) as subjects of electoral rights. Such transformations are possible only after an all-Ukrainian referendum is held, the subject of which should be the issue of changing the subject composition of electoral rights.