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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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| Information | | |
Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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25Feb14
Verkhovna Rada appoints early election of Ukrainian president for May 25
An early election of Kiev's mayor and deputies of the Ukrainian capital's city council will be held on May 25, Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, said in a resolution passed by 331 votes, amid political turmoil in the country where the president was ousted following violent protests.
Galina Gerega, the secretary of the Kiev city council, tendered her resignation, the council reported Monday. Gerega was interim Kiev Mayor after former Mayor Leonid Chernovetskyi stepped down ahead of schedule in 2012, Ukrainian media reported.
An early election of the Ukranian president has been scheduled for the same day.
Voting on membership in Ukraine's new Cabinet will be held early on February 27, leader of the Batkivshchyna faction in the Ukrainian Rada Arseniy Yatsenyuk said on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian parliament approved a resolution at first reading, asking the International Criminal Court to bring Viktor Yanukovych and other officials to justice as responsible "for crimes against humanity during peaceful protest rallies between November 30, 2013 and February 22, 2014". The resolution was supported by 324 deputies, above the minimum 226 votes needed.
The Ukrainian Rada by a majority vote (316) has vested Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov with the powers to sign bills into law. Earlier the Rada had vested Turchynov with the powers of interim president of Ukraine. Turchynov was elected Rada Speaker on February 22, and on the same day the parliamentarians vested him with the powers to control the work of the Ukrainian government.
Vitali Klitschko, the leader of the Udar party, on Tuesday confirmed his intention to run for Ukrainian president in the election scheduled for May 25. "I will run for the post of Ukrainian president," Klitschko said. "We need to change the rules of the game completely. They should be fair," he added.
Ukraine's Interior Ministry said several top officials had been replaced, including security department chief Oleksandr Tulayev, police chiefs in Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, Zakarpatye, and Cherkassk regions and the head of the state traffic police.
An authorized representative for control over operation of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, Arsen Avakov, ordered an investigation into the activities of a number of regional police chiefs, suspected of "disciplinary offenses and abuse of office," the Interior ministry's press service said.
The Rada will meet on Thursday next when the government of people's confidence is to be endorsed. The formation of the coalition and the new government will be discussed first, Turchynov said. This is the task of priority importance we should cope with for the stabilization of the situation, Turchynov said. He appealed to all the leaders of the parliamentary factions, asking to coordinate candidates for all the posts in the government so that the candidates could be put to the vote on Thursday.
[Source: Itar Tass, Kiev, 25Feb14]
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