Two other MPs stripped of mandates, pay and aides

Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Rybak has told parliament that he has instructed that Pavlo Baloha and Oleksandr Dombrowsky have their MP cards cancelled, as well as their pay, and the powers of their consultants.

As reported, on 8 February the High Administrative Court cancelled as inaccurate the election results in two single-mandate electoral districts, stripping Oleksandr Dombrowsky from a Vinnytsa constituency and Pavlo Baloha – Trnascarpathian of their mandates. 

The ruling came a month before the highly controversial stripping of his mandate of opposition MP Serhiy Vlasenko, however the earlier decision also caused concern.  

The opposition called the move reprisals against MPs who had not allied themselves with the Party of the Regions. 

The Deputy Chair of the Central Election Commission, Andriy Mahera agreed with the MPs that the move was unconstitutional and said that in his opinion, the High Council of Justice should consider the actions of the judges from the High Administrative Court.  He said that he had serious doubts as to its constitutionality.

At the time he said that the High Administrative Court had a curious phrase about obliging the CEC to take measures to organize a repeat election. He pointed out that there are only three grounds for doing this: if the person elected, withdraws; if not one candidate was registered in a single-mandate electoral district; if there was one candidate registered, who gained less than half the votes possible. “There are no fourth grounds, and therefore no grounds for the court’s ruling”.

Photo from Kommersant