Candidates found a way to circumvent the norm requiring permanent residency in the country

Valeriy Khoroshkovskiy spent the last 18 months on business trips in London and Monaco

Photo: UNIAN

Living abroad beyond the term stipulated for the registration of a people’s deputy candidate may or may not be an obstacle for running in the parliamentary elections. The Central Election Commission (CEC) is willingly registering some candidates and rejecting others. Moreover, even those against whom sanctions of the European Union are in effect manage to get on the voting list.

Education and business trips

The Central Election Commission refused to register former Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun as a candidate for people’s deputy on the party list of Strong Ukraine headed by Serhiy Tihipko. The reason for the refusal was violation of norms of the Constitution regarding the requirement to live on the territory of Ukraine for the past five years. The CEC refers to the data of the State Border Service saying that Piskun left the territory of Ukraine in October 2012 and only returned this spring.

Meanwhile, the commission registered Piskun’s colleague on the list of the Strong Ukraine party and former head of the State Security Service of Ukraine Valeriy Khoroshkovskiy, who for the past year and a half lived abroad. Member of the CEC Oleksandr Shelestov told Capital that Khoroshkovskiy presented documents certifying that he was on an official business trip. “There is an order of a company that indeed sent him on a long-term business trip. Piskun produced only an unintelligible photocopy of his passport. Moreover, the State Border Service says he was not in the country,” said Shelestov.

Former Deputy Minister of the Economy Mykhailo Pozhyvanov, who has lived in Austria since 2011, passed through registration in constituency No. 137 in the Odesa oblast. Pozhyvanov told Capital that over this period of time he was studying abroad. “I studied in Europe how one should live and build a state. He submitted a package of documents to the CEC to which no observations were made,” he assured.

While Pozhyvanov managed to convince the CEC that he is a law-abiding citizen, such an attempt by people’s deputy Oleksandr Onyshchenko of the Economic Development group failed. The CEC rejected his registration after receiving information that the first year he was out of the country for 245 days and the second year – 215 days. “I haven’t decided yet whether to contest the commission’s decision. I have time until September 25,” Onyshchenko explained.

An interlocutor of Capital in the CEC admits: it is quite difficult for the commission to determine whether an individual lived in Ukraine for the term stipulated by the law. “This is a semi-legal method of determination, inquiries are made to border guards and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the legislation does not envisage a clear mechanism,” he confirmed.

As the publication learned, at the end of 2013 Chair of the CEC Mykhailo Okhendovskiy appealed to the Constitutional Court (CC) with a request to interpret the norm of the Constitution on five year qualification of sedentary for people’s deputy candidates. However, so far the CC has not looked into this issue. According to legislation, no less than 180 days is construed as living on the territory of the country. Moreover, leaving the country on a business trip, for educational purposes, vacation and medical treatment upon recommendations of a medical institution is not considered a violation of the norms of the law.

Qualification of sedentary has long been a bone of contention for the CEC. In January 2002 the commission refused to register ex-major of the State Bodyguard Service Mykola Melnychenko, who ran for a seat in the parliament on the list of the Socialist Party.

He appealed the decision of the CEC in the European Court of Human Rights. In October 2004 the court obligated Ukraine to reinstate Melnychenko’s rights. The next year the commission acknowledged the violation of Melnychenko’s electoral rights and refused to register him as a deputy explaining it by the fact that the elections had already been held.

Sanctions are not a directive

Being on the list of people, against whom the West imposed sanctions, is also not an obstacle to the registration of candidates for a people’s deputy seat in the parliament. As such, the CEC registered people’s deputy Serhiy Klyuyev (independent), the brother of ex-secretary of the NSDC Andriy Klyuyev, as a runner in the election campaign. Back in March Serhiy was included on the list of sanctions of the Council of Europe. The decision of the CE read that he is a “figurehead in the investigation in Ukraine in connection with the plundering of funds from the Ukrainian state budget and their illegal withdrawal beyond the country’s borders”. For this reason, his assets abroad were frozen.

Shelestov explained that the sanctions are not grounds for denying the possibility of running for parliament. He said that Klyuyev is a full-fledged people’s deputy and no criminal cases have been filed against him. He has no previous criminal record. “The elections are held according to the Constitution of Ukraine and the laws, not according to international sanctions. Klyuyev has the legal right to run, all norms of the law have been observed and he made his pledge,” Shelestov assured.

He refused to comment on the information that earlier the State Financial Monitoring Service blocked Klyuyev’s pledge for running in the early parliamentary elections. The deputy will run in constituency No. 46 (Donetsk oblast), where he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada in 2012.