Zelenskiy accuses election commission of delaying election results

President-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused on Apr. 25
the Central Election Commission of Ukraine (CEC) of deliberately dragging out
the official announcement of election results in order to prevent him from
dismissing parliament. By delaying the announcement, parliament can vote to set
the inauguration no earlier than May 27, which would deprive him the ability to
dismiss parliament and call early elections, Zelenskiy said in a video posted
on Facebook. “A president who has 73% support should, at least, have the right
to consider this and have the right to the possibility,” he said.

As its response, CEC Deputy Head Yevhen Radchenko said
the law allows it until May 1, or 10 days after Election Day, to establish
official results. “The CEC has received almost all protocols of district
election commissions,” he said. “This is such a quickness compared to other
election campaigns that it can be called unprecedented.” Meanwhile, parliament
must vote to hold the inauguration no later than 30 days after the official
results are announced.

Zenon Zawada: We believe
Zelenskiy’s success as president depends entirely on the ability of his
political party, the People’s Servant, to gain a strong result in parliamentary
elections. And we are confident that he can’t wait for the elections to be held
in Oct. 27, when they are scheduled, because his party’s results won’t be
nearly as strong as they would be now. That is why many in the public were
puzzled by the statement of campaign adviser Dmytro Razumkov to a television
network on Election Day that “talking about dismissing the Verkhovna Rada today
is impossible. As of today, Apr. 21, this isn’t our issue and it’s not being
discussed.”

We don’t believe that Zelenskiy’s advisers didn’t
discuss early elections throughout the campaign. Now Zelenskiy has confirmed
that he is in fact considering dismissing parliament. This reveals another
problem that has been evident throughout Zelenskiy’s campaign, which is the
inconsistency between his statements and those of his advisers. Indeed
Zelenskiy has been relying heavily on his advisers to make political statements
since his election, so these inconsistencies will need to be resolved if he is
to continue communicating with the public this way.

If Zelenskiy does decide to dismiss parliament, he
will certainly face a legal battle as the legislation is being interpreted in
many ways that argue for and against the move.