Supreme Administrative Court Upholds CEC’s Refusal To Register Tymoshenko …
The Supreme Administrative Court has upheld the Kyiv Administrative Appeal Court’s decision that upheld the Central Electoral Commission’s refusal to register former prime minister and leader of the Batkivschyna All-Ukrainian Association party Yulia Tymoshenko and former interior affairs minister Yurii Lutsenko as parliamentary candidates.
The Supreme Administrative Court made its decision at a session on Wednesday.
The Supreme Administrative Court thus rejected the appeal that the Batkivschyna All-Ukrainian Association party filed against the Kyiv Administrative Appeal Court’s decision.
“The conclusion of the court of first instance that the decision of the CEC against which the appeal was filed is a legitimate and that it was adopted within the authority and manner prescribed by the Constitution and the laws of Ukraine, taking into account all circumstances that are of importance to adoption of the decision, is valid,” judge Oleksandr Vedeniapin said.
The court noted that the Central Electoral Commission is guided by the law when making decision on registration of parliamentary candidates and recognition of their election.
In addition, the court cited in its decision the international practice whereby individuals with outstanding criminal conviction cannot be elected into representative bodies.
The court’s decision is final and not subject to appeal.
Meanwhile, the Batkivschyna party’s representative at the Central Electoral Commission Ruslan Kniazevych (who is a parliamentary deputy belonging to the Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense faction) noted that the party can only appeal to the European Court of Human Rights after exhausting all domestic legal avenues.
“We have exhausted all the internal legal institutions in the country, but external instances remain. I think that the party will decide to seek the support of the European Court of Human Rights,” he said.
Kniazevych described this court decision as political.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Kyiv Administrative Appeal Court ruled on August 11 that the Central Electoral Commission’s resolution No. 216 of August 8 in which it refused to register Tymoshenko and Lutsenko as parliamentary candidates was legal.
On August 8, the Central Electoral Commission adopted a separate resolution in which it refused to register them as parliamentary candidates on the basis of Article 4 of the law “On Elections of People’s Deputies of Ukraine,” which stipulates that a citizen who has been convicted of committing a premeditated crime cannot be nominated or elected as a parliamentary deputy if the conviction has not been canceled or withdrawn in accordance with the procedures established by law.
The plaintiff said it filed the court appeal because the provisions of Article 9 of the law “On Elections of People’s Deputies of Ukraine” contradict Article 76 of the Constitution, which stipulates that a citizen whose conviction has not been withdrawn or canceled cannot be elected into the parliament.
Tymoshenko and Lutsenko have been sentenced to 7 and 4 years in prison for abuse of power.