President Viktor Yushchenko appeals to Central Election Commission (CEC) not to politicize its activity and stresses that as a Head of the state he is a participant of a political process.
He stated this to journalists in Khmelnytsky on Saturday in his comments on the CEC decision. According to the decision the President is obliged to abstain from the election campaign, the President’s press service reports.
“As a President I am not outside the political process. I have a responsibility for legality and freedoms,” stressed Mr. Yushchenko. He emphasized that he takes every opportunity to talk with the citizens, community about democracy development.
“That is why, I would recommend to the state agencies, including the Central Election Commission, not to politicize its activity. It is not their competence to give such recommendations or similar valuations,” stressed the President.
The Head of the state also advised to the CEC members to get acquainted with all imperative norms concerning the president in the Constitution of Ukraine. “If you find an imperative norm of the Ukrainian Constitution, according to which the president is outside of the political process, I would like to dispute about this,” said Mr. Yushchenko.
As it was reported earlier, on the night of September 21/22 CEC invalidated the President’s participation in the election agitation for Our Ukraine—People’s Self-Defense Bloc (NU-NS) and obliged him to abstain from this during the election process. CEC considered a complaint of the Socialist Party of Ukraine and made such a decision.
On September 15 in Lviv Mr. Yushchenko appealed to voters to support ‘his team’ – NU-NS bloc – on the election.
On September 16 Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych stated that according to the Constitution of Ukraine the president has no right to participate in agitation for any party.
See source in Ukrainian
