The Communist Party, which is outlawed in Ukraine, has nominated First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Petro Symonenko as its candidate for presidential elections.
This decision was taken at a special party congress in Kyiv on Jan. 3, the party said in a statement on its website.
“The delegates to the congress unanimously decided to nominate Petro Symonenko, the first secretary of the Central Committee, as candidate from the Communist Party of Ukraine to run for president,” it said.
Also, the election program of the party’s candidate was endorsed at the congress.
In addition, the congress obliged the party committees and party organizations to collect by Jan. 20 the necessary sum of collateral to be put up for the candidate.
In a closing speech at the congress, Symonenko thanked the party organizations and delegates to the congress for their confidence. He also described the pending election campaign as “dramatic in character and tragic in consequences for people.”
After litigations from July 2014 to January 2016, the Communist Party was outlawed, however, the Justice Ministry of Ukraine told the Ukrainska Pravda portal that a ban on the party’s activity does not mean that it cannot exit as a legal entity. “Such termination takes place in the manner prescribed by applicable law, including through the creation of a liquidation commission, which has the authority on the basis of the law, as well as the provisions of the charter, to determine how its property should be handled,” the ministry said in a letter.
