CEC refuses to register Tymoshenko, Lutsenko as candidates for people's deputies

The Central Election Commission (CEC) has registered the party ticket of the Batkivschyna United Opposition, but refused to register former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko and former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko as candidates for people's deputies. 

The CEC approved this decision at a sitting on Wednesday.

Deputy Head of the CEC Zhanna Usenko-Chorna said that the party ticket included a total of 225 candidates for people's deputies, including Tymoshenko and Lutsenko.

Tymoshenko and Lutsenko indicated in their autobiographies that they had "politically motivated convictions."

Usenko-Chorna stressed that the CEC has no right to evaluate court rulings.

"Thus, today the CEC has no reason to register them," she said.

She noted that earlier the CEC haf refused to register 13 candidates on the party ticket of the united opposition, as they did not confirm their consent to the registration as candidates for people's deputies.

Thus, the CEC has registered the party ticket of the Batkivschyna United Opposition that includes 210 candidates.

The CEC said its refusal was justified under Part 4 of Article 9 of the law on election of people's deputies, according to which people that have convictions for conscious crimes and who have not served their sentences cannot be nominated and elected as people's deputy.

Tymoshenko lead the party ticket, and Lutsenko was No. 5 on the list of the united opposition.

On October 11, 2011, the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years of imprisonment for exceeding her authority when signing gas contracts with Russia in 2009. She has been serving her sentence at the Kachanivska correctional facility in Kharkiv since late December 2011.

On February 27, 2012, Pechersky District Court in Kyiv found Lutsenko guilty of committing official crimes and sentenced him to four years in prison, with confiscation of his property.