In an unprecedented move, on Feb. 8, the High Administrative Court of Ukraine canceled election results in two majority constituencies, stripping deputies of their mandates and immunity from prosecution, and ordered a re-election.
The deputies, and some opposition members, say the move is the government’s retaliation for their independent stance in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s legislature.
The court on Feb. 8 cancelled election results in constituency 11 in Vinnytsia and 71 in Zakarpattya Oblast, Interfax Ukraine agency reported. Deputies Oleksandr Dombrovsky and Pavlo Baloga lost their status in parliament as a result. The resolution cannot be appealed.
Pavlo Baloga, the brother of a former Emergencies Minister Viktor Baloga, quit the pro-presidential Party of Regions faction on Dec. 13. Oleksandr Dombrovskiy has remained non-affiliated after the election. Results in Dombrovskiy’s constituency were disputed after the Oct. 28 vote, but the Central Election Commission ruled to recognize his victory.
Viktor Baloga, on his Facebook page, called the court’s ruling “unconstitutional” and said it’s a precedent in Ukraine when an elected deputy is stripped off his mandate by a court rather than by voters.
“You know, this is no longer politics. This is no jurisprudence. This is retaliation in which the state and the people are involved,” Baloga wrote. “And there are no questions to the judges – the whole world has seen that there is no legal power in Ukraine.”
Andriy Magera, a member of the Central Election Commission, told Ukrainska Pravda online newspaper that the court’s ruling violates a whole range of laws and the constitution. He said the term for challenging election results runs out five days after the result was established. Besides, both deputies have been sworn in, and this act is irreversible under Ukraine’s law.
Elected deputies can only be stripped off their powers through their own appeal, if a court finds them guilty in a criminal case, in case they lose the ability to work or go missing, in case they move abroad for permanent residency, or in case of death. A parliament can take a vote to strip a deputy off their status, but not a court, Magera said.
