The legal team of Ukraine's Opposition Bloc alliance has filed a lawsuit to challenge Kiev's decision to close down the country's polling stations in Russia, a member of the Opposition Bloc in the Ukrainian parliament, Oleksandr Vilkul, said on Friday
KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th January, 2019) The legal team of Ukraine's Opposition Bloc alliance has filed a lawsuit to challenge Kiev's decision to close down the country's polling stations in Russia, a member of the Opposition Bloc in the Ukrainian parliament, Oleksandr Vilkul, said on Friday.
On Monday, when a 90-day presidential campaign opened in Ukraine, the country's Central Election Commission (CEC) closed all five foreign polling stations in Moscow, Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don, St. Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg. On Thursday, Ukrainian lawmaker Vadim Rabinovich, the leader of For Life political party, said that he had contested the decision in court.
"Our legal team has filed a lawsuit to protect the right of people to vote for the opportunity to live in a normal country and for the change of the president," Vilkul wrote on Facebook.
According to Vilkul, "it is cynical" to prevent people "hating the current authorities, who make money on the war and who have sent them from their home country to earn money [abroad]" from casting ballots.
He also described the CEC's suggestion that Ukrainians living in Russia could go to polls in diplomatic missions in Finland, Kazakhstan or Georgia as "mockery" over people.
"It is expected that the next step will be the similar disenfranchisement of people living in Ukraine-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. To do this, they will also seek to keep polling stations there closed," Vilkul added.
The Ukrainian presidential election is scheduled for March 31.
