We do not hear everyone. Why President Zelenskyy does not respond to the petition tool?

The previous year, there was also a significant change in the topics of petitions initiated on the president's website. During the year, the most popular one was on the awarding of Hero of Ukraine to military personnel, followed by certain issues related to the state's defense capability – FPV drone production, demobilization of military personnel, possible mobilization of deputies, etc.

 

Why was this tool so popular among Ukrainians in 2023? What do the citizens demand in their petitions, and does President Volodymyr Zelenskyy manage to respond to all appeals in a timely and efficient manner? The study of CHESNO Movement deals with these questions.

In 2021, only 19 petitions had the necessary support and the president's response, in 2022, there were 105 such petitions. And already in 2023, the number of petitions supported by citizens increased to 1,196. Such a drastic difference is even more obvious given that the total number of petitions registered in 2023 is the lowest compared to all previous years. The number of petitions responded to became the highest for the term of office of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

 

There are currently 1,046 unanswered petitions for 2023, four – from 2022, and even one from 2019. And if the 2019 petition is only a gratitude to President Petro Poroshenko and requires no actions to be taken, the petitions pending from 2022 are meaningful and require a response.

For example, in one of the 2022 petitions, citizens demand to impose a veto on the scandalous draft law No. 5655. And it's already been over a year since the president has not signed this legislative initiative, and the petition has “under consideration” status. 

CHESNO movement sent a request to the President's Office to learn about the anticipated response to this petition. However, we were not provided the related information. 

A substantial decrease in the number of registered petitions accompanied by an increase in the number of supported ones proves that citizens unite and use this tool less for “spam”, but more for upholding important petitions. Such a situation is a direct evidence of an increased attention to the tool. 

For example, “spam” petitions in 2022 included the proposal not to oblige a husband to pay alimony if his wife has gone abroad or to celebrate Ukrainian Borsch Day. 

“Borsch is ours! I propose to set July 1 the Borsch Day and to hold a national borsch feast every year,” goes one of the “spam” petitions.

Topics of the petitions also changed after the full-scale invasion began. The top issues are those related to the state defense capability and the servicemen awarding. In 2022, there were many such petitions, but in 2023, this topic became the main one. However, some petitions contain no data in the subject field. This means that when registering the petition, the author did not choose a topic from the proposed list. The content of such petitions may be diverse, however, currently petitions “without a topic” often also refer to the awarding issues. 

Almost half of all registered petitions are on “Awarding and conferring honorary titles”. 70% of the petitions with the required 25,000 votes are also on this topic. However, a petition to the president became almost the only way for relatives to declare the heroism of Ukrainian defenders they wish to be recognized by the state. Most such appeals are about posthumous awards.

However, statistics show that only a small number of such petitions are promptly responded to by the president. The president's reaction is not a guarantee that the serviceperson will be awarded. After all, even given 25,000 votes, there can be an intermediate response by the president and the issue may be forwarded to the executive authorities to be addressed. If this is the case, only the petition author will know the final answer, although in view of the issue relevance, the answer should be made public. It should be noted that Andriy Yermak, the Head of the President's Office, chairs the Commission on State Awards and Heraldry, and Oleksiy Dniprov, the Head of the OP Apparatus, is the deputy chairman. 

Read more: Advisers' State. Who advises the Office of the President

While about a thousand petitions on awarding the Ukrainian defenders are pending waiting for the president's decision, the status of Hero of Ukraine is still held by Yuriy Boyko, who is included in the “Z state traitors” register. To address the issue of depriving pro-Russian politicians, collaborators, and traitors of state awards and titles, Ukrainians also supported petitions.

It should be recalled that back then President Zelenskyy delegated this issue to Denys Shmyhal, Prime Minister, which is not surprising as responded petitions require mechanisms to address them, therefore, they are often delegated to the Cabinet of Ministers or the Parliament. Later, the prime minister announced a lack of sufficient grounds to apply personal sanctions against one of the leaders of the prohibited OPFL party, but after a public reaction, he submitted a relevant draft law.

The worst thing here is that a draft law by the People's Deputy Roman Lozynskiy has been registered with the Verkhovna Rada for several years already, and the parliament can consider it in the second reading shortly. That is, all the Prime Minister had to do was to turn to the Committee for State Power with a request to promptly prepare draft No. 6163 for the second reading. However, given almost two years of the full-scale invasion, the state awards crisis remains non-addressed, unfortunately.

Read more: Two sides of the same coin: when will traitors and collaborators be deprived of state awards?

Earlier, CHESNO Movement wrote that petitions and public reaction can help solve problems, however, we still have to insist on more efficient approaches to the citizens' interaction with the authorities as Ukrainians doubt the petitions' potential. And this applies not only to petitions to the president but also to local ones.

Read more: Local petitions. Can residents influence the local authorities?

Following the study, about 70% of Ukrainians doubt the petitions' potential as a tool to influence decision-making. Only 30% of Ukrainians believe that petitions on the website of the President of Ukraine are efficient. The same indicator for local petitions – 25%. 

At that, despite such an assessment of the petitions' efficiency, citizens' appeals on the websiteof the president are almost the only available tool to get involved in the life of the state given martial law. Therefore, CHESNO Movement calls on the Office of the President to pay attention to the e-petition tool and improve its efficiency.

The analysis of citizens' petitions posted on the website of the President of Ukraine in 2023 proves that petitions have become almost the only way Ukrainians can highlight the need to reward the heroic deeds of the Ukrainian military. In 2023, the number of supported petitions demanding to award military personnel, often posthumously, is almost ten times greater than the number of petitions supported in previous years. The trend shows that there are gaps in the award issue that require the attention of lawmakers and military leadership. 

The mechanism of responding to the supported petitions also needs improvement. Despite the legally defined 10 days for a response, petitions can remain pending for several months or even years. Increasing public attention to the petition tool and a significant increase in their number complicates their efficiency to a great extent. Nevertheless, this tool remains almost the only way available to Ukrainians to communicate with the authorities nowadays. Therefore, it is recommended to pay more attention to the petition tool and increase its efficiency. 

On the other hand, in 2023, the amount of “spam” posted by citizens decreased significantly. In 2022, about 13,000 petitions were registered, while in 2023, there were about 6,000 of them. Such a decrease in the number of registered petitions followed by an increase in the number of supported ones may evidence a more thorough citizens' approach to public involvement. And therefore, the demands of this tool become more serious.

Citizens have made their contribution to improving the quality of petitions, now representatives of the authorities should also pay attention to this tool. There are many ways to improve efficiency: to regulate the mechanism of awarding and honoring military at the state level, so that relatives do not use petitions and all other available ways to draw attention to their stories; to promote a faster and grounded response to petitions supported by citizens; to make the final result of the petition review public, etc.

However, the first step should be an increase in the openness of the authorities' activities and establishing communication with Ukrainians. Given the difficult wartime conditions and the enemy's attempts to split Ukrainian society, the qualitative interaction between society and the authorities becomes even more crucial. In this context, attention to petitions and other tools of involvement should be growing.

Data: Daryna Lyhenko, CHESNO Movement

Graphics: Ivan Lampeka, CHESNO Movement

This material was prepared with the support of International Renaissance Foundation. The views expressed in this material are those of its authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of International Renaissance Foundation.