Ukraine president signs bill that may prevent Klitschko presidential run

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych signed on November 8 tax code legislation that contains the so-called “Klitschko riders,” which are rules that deem permanent residents, or taxpayers, of foreign countries to be “a person who is not living in Ukraine.” Afterwards, Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform Party Chair Vitali Klitschko accused the ruling parliamentary majority of approving the legislation as a step towards undermining his candidacy for the 2015 presidential elections (forbidding those with his residency status from competing). Klitschko is a permanent resident of German and has paid taxes to the German and U.S. governments. Current rules require presidential candidates to have had residency for at least the last 10 years.

Zenon Zawada: The emergence of such legislation, with the president’s approval, is very troubling. Recall that the 2004 presidential elections were ruled as fraudulent by Ukraine’s Supreme Court, when Yanukovych was prime minister of Ukraine. He will have to prove that he’s capable of overseeing a free and fair 2015 presidential election. We’re confident that Western nations will not view the 2015 presidential election as legitimate without the involvement of both of the leading opposition leaders: former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and especially Klitschko, who leads the polls as the top presidential challenger.