The date of election of the Verkhovna Rada of the VII convocation may be changed

Yesterday, President Viktor Yushchenko signed a decree on the early termination of the powers of the Verkhovna Rada, scheduling parliamentary elections for December 7. The Central Election Commission, however, does not rule out that the date may be postponed. The progress of parties' preparations for the election campaign also indicates that leading political forces expect the voting to be postponed to a later date.

Despite the fact that President Viktor Yushchenko's televised address on the dissolution of the Verkhovna Rada was shown on Wednesday evening (see yesterday's Kommersant), the text of the corresponding decree appeared on the head of state's website only yesterday morning. The fact is that, according to the requirements of Art. 77 of the Constitution, early elections must be held no later than 60 days “after the publication of the decision on the early termination of the powers of the Verkhovna Rada.” Thus, having signed the corresponding decree on October 8, Viktor Yushchenko would be forced to call elections for November 30. By postponing its signing by a day, the president gained the right to postpone the vote to the following Sunday, December 7.

The decree of the head of state has not yet entered into force, since it has not been published in official publications. As practice shows, a delay in the publication of a document by a day is a common occurrence. Meanwhile, the Central Election Commission suggested yesterday that the Presidential Secretariat is deliberately delaying the transfer of the text of the decree to the editorial office of the Official Presidential Gazette in order to shift the voting date to a later date.

— If the decree is promulgated no later than next Tuesday inclusive, then December 7 will be considered voting day. If this happens later, then (voting day.—Kommersant) could be December 14,” Deputy Chairman of the Central Election Commission Andrei Magera said yesterday.

Probably one of the reasons for delaying the publication of the decree is that, according to lawyers from the Presidential Secretariat, after this document appears in official publications, the Verkhovna Rada will not be able to hold legitimate meetings. At the same time, parliament must adopt a number of laws necessary for the election campaign, in particular, repeal the rule on the mandatory use of the electronic state voter register and amend the state budget, allocating UAH 417 million to finance election commissions. Yesterday, attempts to approve the bills necessary for holding elections failed (see material on the same page).

The headquarters of political forces also admit that the Verkhovna Rada of the VII convocation will not be elected on December 7. In particular, this is indirectly confirmed by information about orders for political advertising. According to Kommersant's information, the pro-presidential Our Ukraine, which obviously should have been the first to know about the planned date of the elections, is in no hurry to reserve advertising space for the duration of the campaign. At the same time, the Party of Regions ordered advertising for a period exceeding the announced terms of the election campaign. This information was confirmed to Kommersant by outdoor advertising operators.

— BYuT ordered a campaign from us for a month. The Party of Regions has reserved seats for three months, that is, until January, but Our Ukraine has not even applied yet. It looks like they know that it’s too early to throw money away on outdoor advertising,” a representative of one of the leading companies in the outdoor advertising market told Kommersant.

Sergey Kommersant-Sidorenko

The President gives several days to choose