Prosecutors on Oct. 29 opened a criminal investigation into allegedly forged changes in the tax code that potentially could strip world heavyweight boxing champion and opposition leader Vitali Klitschko of his right to run for president.
The
investigation was opened after Oksana Prodan, a lawmaker with Klitschko’s Ukrainian
Democratic Alliance for Reforms party, sent an appeal to Prosecutor General
Viktor Pshonka. The police “will check the information reported in lawmaker’s plea,”
Kyiv prosecution said in a statement published on its website.
On Oct. 24,
parliament approved legal amendments stating that a person who has a residence
permit in another country is no longer considered a resident of Ukraine. This
potentially may prevent Klitschko, who has German residency for tax reasons, from
participation in the presidential run since contenders for the country’s top
post have to reside in Ukraine for a minimum of 10 years.
Klitschko,
who according to the polls may become the strongest challenger to President
Viktor Yanukovych’s re-election bid in 2015, accused the pro-presidential
forces of trying to block his candidacy.
According
to parliament’s website, the amendments that could block a Klitschko bid were
proposed by Igor Brychenko, a lawmaker with the opposition Batkivshchyna party.
But Brychenko said his involvement was forged.
Prodan, a
member of Klitschko’s UDAR party, agrees. “Brychenko’s statement about
falsification of amendments has been registered by the moment of vote in the hall,”
she told the Kyiv Post. “And the speaker knew about that.”
Prodan said
that, if prosecutors discover fraud, parliament may recognize the amendments as
invalid. The president may also refuse to sign the measure into law “if he
isn’t afraid of Klitschko and doesn’t plan any falsifications of the
elections,” she added.
But while
UDAR lawmakers claim he’s the victim of pro-government forces, some observers
say that other opposition parties – ostensibly Klitschko’s allies – may be
behind the attempt to keep him off the 2015 presidential ballot.
“The
interests of some opposition leaders and of pro-government opponents of Vitali
Klitschko met” in this story, Volodymyr Fesenko, a prominent political analyst
said. “This scandal, where one of the leaders of presidential run is being
removed in such a way, has a very negative meaning ahead of the Vilnius summit.”
Ukraine
plans to sign in Vilnius on Nov. 28-29 a landmark political association and
free trade agreement with the European Union, which is seen by many as an historic
move away from Russia towards the West.
Kyiv
Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at [email protected]
