President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sept. 10 formally requested that the Verkhovna Rada dissolve the current Central Election Commission ahead of schedule, saying it demonstrated a political bias.
Kostyantyn Khivrenko, the commission’s spokesman, declined to comment.
The move follows hints by Zelensky’s team that this year the Rada may announce early local elections, which would have to be held by the Central Election Commission. Scheduled local elections are expected to take place in 2020.
Zelensky argued in his formal written request to the parliament that the commission had repeatedly demonstrated a political bias, including by refusing to register 28 candidates in the July 21 parliamentary election, which Zelensky’s party won.
He said that courts had canceled many of the commission’s decisions as unlawful.
As an example, Zelensky cited District 169 in Kharkiv, where Oleksandr Kunitsky from Zelensky’s Servant of the People party ran against Oleksandr Hranovsky, an ex-lawmaker from former President Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc.
Kunitsky was banned from running by the Central Election Commission on July 11 due to his Israeli citizenship and alleged violations of residency requirements. Later a court canceled the decision, and he was elected to the Rada.
Zelensky also said that the commission had so far failed to recognize the winner in District 198.
The commission has also failed to react to reports of alleged vote rigging and vote buying in favor of ex-President Petro Poroshenko in the presidential election. Poroshenko denied the accusations of voting fraud.
Based on different assessments, Poroshenko had a majority in the current Central Election Commission ranging from eight to 10 members out of the commission’s 16 members. Six of the members were representatives of his former party Poroshenko Bloc, which led the previous parliament.
Tetiana Slipachuk, head of the commission, denied being backed by Poroshenko. She was delegated to the Central Election Commission by the People’s Will faction, which had often aligned with the Poroshenko’s party during parliament votes. Before that, in 2016, Poroshenko appointed Slipachuk to the commission that was selecting the leadership of the State Investigation Bureau, a new investigative body that was being formed.
The parliament, controlled by Zelensky’s party, is most likely to support his request and dissolve the Central Election Commission.
If it happens, the incumbent Central Election Commission will be the most short-lived in Ukrainian history.
The commission was appointed in September 2018 after the Verkhovna Rada dragged its feet for years after the expiry of the previous commission’s term in 2014.
