Ukraine parliament fails to support Kyiv elections in June

Ukraine’s parliament failed to muster enough votes on April 2 to hold elections for the Kyiv City Council and city mayor on June 2. The ruling Party of Regions didn’t support the legislation offered by the opposition, having submitted a similar bill for review by the Constitutional Court, which is supposed to determine whether the elections can be held simultaneously. Opposition leaders accused the Party of Regions of derailing the elections, and undermining Ukrainian democracy, because of the expected victory opposition candidates are projected to gain. More than 3,000 protesters came to the parliament to support holding the elections, in the biggest demonstration in Kyiv since the October parliamentary elections.

Zenon Zawada: The Kyiv City Council vote was supposed to occur in June 2012, while the mayoral election is supposed to be in June 2013, according to established term limits. Now they’re inevitably postponed, since elections must be approved by parliament no later than 60 days in advance. It’s clear the Party of Regions doesn’t want to lose control of the Kyiv government ahead of the presidential election slated for October 2015.

While the position of the Constitutional Court on the issue is not known at the moment, given the court’s track record that accommodates the political needs of the administration of President Viktor Yanukovych, we see a high probability that its ruling will be in favor of postponing the elections. A failure to hold timely elections gives the EU leadership even more arguments against signing the Association Agreement with Ukraine. These counterarguments are piling up literally every week, whether it’s the arrest of opposition parliamentary candidate Viktor Romaniuk in Italy or the removal from parliament of Serhiy Vlasenko, the defense attorney for imprisoned former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.