Constitutional Court rules Zelensky's decree on Rada dissolution in line with Constitution
Ukraine's Constitutional Court has ruled the decree issued by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to dissolve the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, and hold early parliamentary elections is in line with the Constitution, a source told Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.
"The Constitutional Court, at a closed-door session of its Grand Chamber on Thursday, found the decree dissolving the Rada and calling early elections to be constitutional," the source said, noting that the elections will therefore be held on July 21 as decreed.
As reported, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on June 11 began a hearing behind closed doors on the constitutionality of the presidential decree on disbanding Ukraine's parliament.
Zelensky signed a decree on the early termination of the powers of the Verkhovna Rada and the appointment of extraordinary elections, according to which the day of voting in the snap elections to parliament is scheduled for July 21.
A motion filed by 62 MPs to check if the presidential decree is in line with the Constitution of Ukraine (constitutional) was registered at the Constitutional Court on May 24.
The lawmakers believe that the decree does not correspond to such an element of the rule of law as legal certainty, because it does not contain a proper justification for the existence of grounds for early termination of the parliament's powers.
The authors of the motion note that under Paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Article 90 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the president shall not determine the absence or presence of a coalition of parliamentary factions in the Verkhovna Rada, but shall only issue a decree when there is a legal fact – the absence of a coalition of parliamentary factions in parliament for one month from the date it ceases to exist.
According to them, the decree contradicts a number of norms of Ukraine's Constitution.