Constitutional Court ruling can’t halt elections, commissioner says

Any ruling by the Constitutional Court on the
president’s decree dismissing parliament and calling early elections isn’t
capable of halting the elections, Central Election Commission Head Tetiana
Slipachuk said in an interview with the BBC published on June 18.

“The Constitutional Court can’t halt the elections
with its ruling. It can only determine the decree’s constitutionality, nothing
more,” she said. If the Court rules the decree violated the law, that would be the
equivalent of it rendering the decree non-existent, she said. “That means I
won’t have any legal basis to spend state funds. Many questions will emerge,”
she said. At the same time, the CEC has already begun preparing for the
elections, a process that can’t be postponed or temporarily halted, she said,
calling it “a very complicated situation.”

Recall, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed
a decree on May 21 dismissing parliament and setting early elections for July
21. An appeal of the decree was submitted to the Constitutional Court by 62 MPs
on May 27, alleging it violated the law.

Zenon Zawada: It’s our
understanding that a district court ruling can halt the elections based on the
Constitutional Court’s ruling. Yet given all the legal and logistical troubles
that would emerge from an adverse ruling, we believe that Zelensky will reach a
consensus with his political opponents to hold the early parliamentary
elections on July 21. We believe his political opponents – led by former
President Poroshenko and his European Solidarity party – will agree to a
consensus because they know that the public favors elections to be held on this
date.

It’s also becoming clear to Zelensky’s opponents that
they stand to lose more public support by fighting the early elections than any
votes they can gain by criticizing Zelensky until late October (when the
elections were originally scheduled for). Zelensky’s popularity is so strong at
the moment that he is largely immune to criticism, and will likely remain so
through the year end. From his end, by reaching this consensus, Zelensky can
avoid being accused of flaunting the rule of law and ignoring an important
court ruling. We see the likelihood of parliamentary elections being held on
July 21 as higher than 75%.