The complete replacement of the Ukrainian Central Election Commission (CEC) may be linked to plans to hold elections in Donbas areas not controlled by Kyiv on Russia’s terms, former Ukrainian president and currently leader of the European Solidarity party Petro Poroshenko said.
“After all, the motives of this decision should be looked for in the future, not in the past. We are particularly concerned about elections in the occupied territories. There have been increasingly more indications that they might be held on Russian terms, without implementing the security component of the Minsk Agreements. The sudden replacement of the commission might be prompted precisely by this,” Poroshenko wrote on Facebook on Sept. 13.
In voting for dismissing the previous composition of the CEC, the parliamentary majority “shot itself in the foot” and called into question the legitimacy of both the new president and the new parliament, he said.
“After all, the commission hasn’t yet worked for even a year and impeccably held two election campaigns. International organizations and monitors have recognized the presidential election and the Verkhovna Rada elections as meeting European standards,” Poroshenko said.
He thanked the CEC members for organizing two honest election campaigns in 2019.
Earlier on Sept. 13, the Verkhovna Rada supported President Volodymyr Zelensky’s proposal on the early dismissal of all the 16 CEC members.
