Court upholds Zelensky decree ordering early elections on July 21

The Constitutional Court of Ukraine ruled on June 20
to uphold President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decree to dismiss parliament and call
early elections for July 21. The Court cited the absence of clear legal norms
to reach a decision overturning the decree in its ruling published on its
website. As a result, the conflict doesn’t have a legal solution, since neither
the Constitution nor parliamentary rules provide an order for dissolving the
parliamentary coalition. Therefore, holding elections to resolve the conflict
over dissolving parliament is a solution that conforms with the Constitution.

Recall, Zelensky signed his decree on May 21, the day
of his inauguration, based on the argument that the parliamentary coalition
lacked quorum, or 226 MPs, between its two factions, the Solidarity Poroshenko
Bloc and the People’s Front party.

Zenon Zawada: The court
ruling seems to have a political nature with the goal of avoiding a political
crisis that could have emerged with a contradictory ruling (overturning the
decree). The central issue raised by those opposed to the decree was whether
Zelensky’s argument – that a coalition was nonexistent – was legitimate. Yet
the court chose to avoid that issue altogether, not mentioning it in its
ruling. It’s our view that this was a legitimate argument, considering the
parliament’s own website has indicated a lack of quorum for several years now.

Now that political crisis has been avoided, everyone
will shift into high gear for the July 21 vote. The big questions are: (1) Will
The People’s Servant party secure at least 50% of parliamentary seats? (2) Will
Poroshenko’s European Solidarity party be able to qualify? (3) Will the
pro-Russian forces gain at least a quarter of the seats to form the opposition?
and (4) Will Akhmetov/Novinsky’s Opposition Bloc be able to qualify?