Only the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine can take the decisions needed to hold repeat votes in those election districts in which the Central Election Commission (CEC) found it impossible to establish the election results, CEC member Mykhailo Okhendovsky has said.
“The commission recognized two facts with its decision – firstly, the impossibility of reliably determining the results of voting and the results of the election of people’s deputies of Ukraine in certain single-seat constituencies and, secondly, the need to hold repeat elections in them. The CEC cannot appoint such elections with its decision, or set the date for their holding, on the basis of the current law. Therefore, the commission appealed to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. In this situation only parliament can take the decisions needed to set the date for the elections,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“Ideally, this should be a decision introducing amendments to the election law. Moreover, spending on the holding of election reruns should be envisaged in Ukraine’s state budget. In this regard respective decisions should be adopted in the Verkhovna Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. I’m convinced that by adopting a resolution on the need to set the date for new elections in some districts, the CEC took the exhaustive measures aimed at resolving the current situation there. But the commission cannot set the date and hold repeat elections, without violating the law and the constitution, without the further decisions of the parliament and the government,” he added.
