Law does not envisage Ukrainian language tests for presidential candidates - Ukraine's CEC

14:59, 05.04.2019 1 min read

The Ukrainian law on presidential elections does not require presidential candidates to have a "good" command of Ukrainian, but considers it an indispensable requirement for them to be able to speak the state language, Ukrainian Central Election Commission (CEC) Deputy Chairman Yevhen Radchenko has said.

"The law does not contain a requirement for candidates to have a 'good' command of Ukrainian. The Constitution envisages compulsory knowledge [of Ukrainian]," Radchenko told a briefing on Friday, responding to a question about how the level of presidential candidates' knowledge of the state language is tested.

No law envisages any tests or other procedures to determine whether a presidential candidate has a 'proper' or 'good' command of the state language, he said.

The documents that the candidates filed for their registration in the presidential election were in Ukrainian, which is the state language, and the CEC took that into account, Radchenko said.