Court adjudges President’s inaction of not dismissing Central Election Commission members

The President should submit new candidacies to the Parliament immediately. There is no impeachment law in the country so the President will face only political responsibility in case the judgment isn’t satisfied.

As constitutional right expert of the Centre for Political and Legal Reforms Yulia Kyrychenko noted in the commentary to Express portal, the political arguments such as the oncoming elections cannot be an excuse for inaction of the President.

As known, the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine adjudged illegal the inactivity of the President Petro Poroshenko. The President did not make a submission to the Parliament on dismissal of 12 members of the Central Electoral Commission, whose term of office mostly expired in August 2014. Among them are chairman Mykhailo Okhendovsky and deputy chairman Zhanna Usenko-Chorna and deputy chairman Andriy Mahera.

The court found that the President does not fulfill his direct duties.

“Pursuant to the amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the Central Election Commission”, the powers of the CEC members were extended until establishing results of the early presidential elections. Do you realize when it was? The presidential elections took place in late May 2014 … Then, actually, the term of office of some CEC members came to an end,” Yulia Kyrychenko said.

Then, to establish the election results, the Parliament amended the legislation to suspend dismissal.

The expert noted that the court did not have to oblige the President to make the corresponding submission to the Parliament as the conclusion of unlawfulness of actions was enough. The President should respond immediately and submit nominations of new CEC members to the Parliament. Although, taking into account the fact there is no impeachment law, we can talk only about the political responsibility in case the judgment is not satisfied.

As a reminder, some MPs demand dismissal of CEC chairman Mykhailo Okhendovsky after his decision to appoint the second round of election in Pavlohrad, Dnipropetrovsk region. He is also believed to be involved in the violations during the elections in Kryvyi Rih.

Yesterday, Parliament’s speaker Volodymyr Groysman said that the issue of dismissal of Okhendovsky would be resolved in the first-second decade of December.