CEC member: US Senate resolution on Tymoshenko will not affect parliamentary campaign in Ukraine

A U.S. Senate resolution on Ukraine calling for releasing former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko will not affect the parliamentary election campaign, Ukrainian Central elections Commission (CEC) members Mykhailo Okhendovsky said.

"I absolutely do not want to and will not comment on any political decisions, be it those made in Ukraine or those made outside our country, which cannot have any effect on the electoral process in our country by definition," Okhendovsky said on Channel 5 on Tuesday, Sept. 25.

Tymoshenko cannot be registered as a candidate in the upcoming parliamentary elections, as the deadline for registering candidates has already expired, he said.

"The CEC has absolutely no reasons to register any individual as a parliamentary candidate today, no matter what this individual's name is. Therefore, I can guarantee 100% that there will be no new candidate in these elections. This would have been absolutely unlawful and arbitrary on the CEC's part," Okhendovsky said.

It was reported earlier that the U.S. Senate had adopted a resolution calling for freeing Tymoshenko from prison and denying entry to Ukrainian officials responsible for Tymoshenko's imprisonment and ill-treatment.

Kyiv's Pechersky District Court on October 11, 2011 sentenced Tymoshenko to 7 years in prison for abuse of office in signing gas supply contracts with Russia in 2009. Tymoshenko has been serving her prison term at a penitentiary in Kharkiv since December 2011. At the present time, she is undergoing medical treatment at a Kharkiv-based hospital.

Parliamentary elections in Ukraine are scheduled for October 28.