The Ukrainian government has refused to finance early elections to the Supreme Rada

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

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The Ukrainian government has refused to finance early elections to the Supreme Rada (parliament). The cabinet of ministers adopted a corresponding resolution on Wednesday. All members of the government, with the exception of the foreign minister and the defence minister, signed it, said Minister of Justice Alexander Lavrinovich. He explained the government decision by the violation of the “countersigning procedure.” “Under the Constitution, corresponding resolutions of the Council for National Defence and Security (CNDS) should be signed by the prime minister and the ministers in charge of their fulfilment. The Council did not send those documents to the cabinet of ministers for signing,” Lavrinovich continued. He reminded that the government was guided in its work not only by presidential decrees, but also by resolutions of the Supreme Rada, which described the presidential decree of its dissolution as unconstitutional. “The Council resolution suggests the beginning of the financing of the electoral campaign contrary to several articles of the budget code and the law on the election of people’s deputies. It is clear that this approach cannot be supported. The government will not agree to a deliberate violation of the budget code and of the law on elections,” he stressed. The Council assigned the cabinet of ministers on April 5 to allocate financial resources for financing the early parliamentary elections. The financing was to be done from the reserve fund of the state budget. First Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister Nikolai Azarov said previously that some 700 million grivnas (some 140 million dollars) would be needed for the early elections. “The government would not like to take upon itself the responsibility for diverting that amount of money from social programmes.” “I suggest that the president address the nation and say that we have an extra 700 million grivnas, which he could take away from pensioners and spend on elections,” Azarov stressed. Yaroslav Davydovich, head of the Central Electoral Commission, said that 340 million grivnas (68 million dollars) would be needed for holding the early elections, although previously he mentioned 400 to 500 million grivnas.

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