The Central Election Commission established the lack of legal grounds to register Vasyl Virastiuk as a people’s deputy for constituency No 87. It was discussed at the CEC session on May, 5, 2021.

According to Viktoria Hlushchenko, a CEC member, on April, 27, they received an application from Vasyl Virastiuk, with all required documents, to register him as a people’s deputy.

At the same time, the protocol of the Central Election Commission on establishing voting results in constituency No 87 dated April, 22, was contested in the Supreme Court. On May, 1, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court approved the Resolution that declared illegal the actions of the Central Election Commission as to establishing voting results in constituency No 87, and held illegal and repealed the CEC protocol.

“Therefore, as of the day of considering the matter by the Commission, a protocol on voting results had been cancelled, thus, the Commission did not have any legal grounds to register Vasyl Virastiuk as a people’s deputy of Ukraine. At the same time, it shall be noted that according to a legal opinion of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court, laid down in a resolution of May, 2, 2021, the registration of an elected person as a deputy is in the cause-and-effect relation, where the establishment of voting results in a single-member constituency is a cause for the decision to register an elected deputy, whereas the registration is an effect of the decision of the Central Election Commission on establishing voting results,” quotes the draft resolution Viktoria Hlushchenko.

According to the chairperson at the meeting, a deputy head of the Central Election Commission, Vitaliy Plukar, the CEC is taking steps to find the most optimal solution as there is no currently a purely legal way out.

“However, as for the Central Election Commission, a matter is under consideration to make the most reasonable decision to enable the establishment of voting results in constituency No 87,” says Plukar.

For your information, on Saturday, May, 1, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court approved a Resolution that declared illegal the actions of the Central Election Commission as to the establishment of voting results in constituency No 87, and held it illegal and repealed the CEC protocol dated April, 22, 2021, that established voting results and declared Vasyl Virastiuk a winner in constituency No 87.  Therefore, the Grand Chamber partially satisfied the appeal petition from Oleksandr Shevchenko against the Decision of the Supreme Court of April, 28, 2020, on a case No 9901/114/21.