The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has supported the appointment of first deputy head of the Servant of the People faction Oleksandr Korniyenko to the post of First Deputy Chairman of parliament.

The relevant decision was supported by 256 MPs at the Tuesday plenary session.

The appointment of Korniyenko, in particular, was supported by 222 MPs of the Servant of the People faction, some 13 and 17 MPs from the For the Future and Dovira factions, respectively, as well as four non-factional deputies. Only two MP from the Opposition Platform - For Life faction voted against and one MP each of the European Solidarity and Batkivschyna factions. Most of these MPs, as well as representatives of the Holos faction, abstained.

As a correspondent of Interfax-Ukraine said, before this vote, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk put the candidacy of Korniyenko and MP of the European Solidarity faction Sofia Fedyna to the rating vote. In the course of the rating vote, some 248 MPs voted for Korniyenko, and Fedyna was supported by 73 ones, mainly MPs of the European Solidarity and Batkivschyna factions, as well as three MPs from Servant of the People. Then Stefanchuk proposed to vote for Korniyenko's candidacy for the post of first deputy chairman.

The Verkhovna Rada also relieved Korniyenko of his duties as a member of the Committee on the Organization of State Power.