Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed into law amendments to the parliament's rules of procedure passed by the Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday, July 22, presidential press secretary Sviatoslav Tseholko said.
“The president has signed amendments to the law on the rules of procedure,” Tseholko said on Twitter on Tuesday evening.
It was reported earlier that several members had left the Communist
Party’s parliamentary faction over the past month, reducing its
composition compared to what it was while it was formed at the first
session of the current parliament.
The Verkhovna Rada passed legislation on July 22 entitling its
chairman with the power to dissolve a faction that has lost some of its
members compared to the number it had while it was formed during the
first parliamentary session. The bill was supported by 232
parliamentarians. Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov vowed to forward the bill
to the president for signature later in the day, “so that he should sign
it immediately, and after that I will announce the dissolution of the
Ukrainian Communist Party faction.”
Some parliamentarians have also proposed an amendment to the rules of
procedure entitling the speaker to dissolve a parliamentary faction or
group if the number of its members becomes lower than that of the
smallest faction formed during the first parliamentary session. In this
case, the speaker would have the right to dissolve such a faction within
15 days.
It was reported earlier that the Kyiv District Administrative Court
would start hearings on banning the Communist Party on July 24.
The suit on finding the Communist Party illegal has been filed by the Justice Ministry and the State Registration Service.
Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko had said earlier that both
Ukrainian and foreign lawyers would be defending the Communist Party’s
interests in court. He said also that he was sure that the Communist
Party would prove at the hearings that “lawlessness is prevailing” in
Ukraine.
“This lawsuit was concocted to meet demands by then acting President
and Verkhovna Rada Chairman [Oleksandr] Turchynov. That is, the
so-called democracy has been instructed to concoct a case to ban the
Communist Party’s activities,” Symonenko said.
He branded the allegations that the Communist Party was engaged in
anti-constitutional activities and support of separatists as “nonsense.”
