Communist parties not to take part in elections – Ukraine’s Justice Ministry

Ukraine’s Justice Ministry has banned three communist parties from participating in the electoral process, describing them as violators of the Ukrainian laws.

This was stated by Justice Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Petrenko, Interfax-Ukraine news agency reports.

“After the adoption of laws [on de-communization], an independent commission was established, which was checking the activities of the three communist parties of Ukraine – the Communist Party, the Communist Party (renewed) and the Communist Party Workers and Peasants of Ukraine for a month,” the Minister said.

“Based on the findings of the commission, I have signed three orders that say that the communist parties of Ukraine, in particular, in terms of their activities, their names, their symbols, their statutes and their programs, do not meet the requirements of Part 2 of Article 3 of the Law on the condemnation of the Communist and National Socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes in Ukraine and the prohibition of propaganda of their symbols. Starting from today, this political force and two other Communist parties cannot be the subject of the electoral process and cannot take part in the political life of the country,” Petrenko said.

The Minister also stressed that the Justice Ministry of Ukraine would take the process of banning all communist parties to its logical conclusion and will seek a relevant court ruling.

In turn, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov said that the Communist Party of Ukraine and the other Communist parties had no longer the status of a political party in Ukraine since July 24, 2015.

“Since today, the Communist Party of Ukraine and other satellite communist parties lose their political status and rights of political parties. This is a truly historic moment …” Oleksandr Turchynov noted.

At the same time, head of the Communist Party of Ukraine Petro Symonenko stated that the decision of the Justice Ministry would not affect the plans of the Communists to participate in the elections.

“The Communists will take part in the elections,” Ukrayinska Pravda (Ukrainian Truth) Ukraine’s media outlet quotes Symonenko as saying.