Moroz Not to Hurry to Invite Observers

The Verkhovna Rada will invite international observers to control the course of elections only after legitimacy of their calling has been confirmed. The Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of the fifth convocation Oleksandr Moroz announced this on Thursday after meeting the President of International Association Business and Parliament Mr. Bruce George.

According to the Speaker’s press secretary Viktoria Shvedova, Mr. Moroz stressed that by that time there were not enough legal grounds to hold early parliamentary elections. However, the Speaker pointed out that the President’s decrees to hold pre-term elections contradicted the Constitution and laws of Ukraine.

Moreover, Mr. Moroz reminded that the matter of the so-called bloc list nullification had not been yet resolved due to the President’s Secretariat hampering the work of the Central Election Committee (CEC).

Though he underlined that as soon as the CEC had taken a correspondent decision, the parliament would send the associated invitations to the European countries for them to assign their observers to Ukraine.

Moroz also expressed his apprehension of the possible threat to integrity of the Ukrainian court system.

According to him, if the election campaign were to happen, it should be ‘juridical’ (IOW based on just court’s decisions), as much depends on how independent judges are in delivering their rulings.

In his turn, Mr. George, a political observer at the last parliamentary election in Ukraine, underscored that the previous election campaign in Ukraine met all the international democratic standards.

Moreover, he wished that the next elections would also meet the necessary requirements.