The proposed debate between the two Ukrainian presidential candidates who have made it to the runoff, Volodymyr Zelenskiy and incumbent President Petro Poroshenko, at Kiev's Olimpiyskiy stadium, can be considered a form of campaigning but not an official debate that is regulated by the country's election laws, the deputy chairman of the country's Central Election Commission (CEC) said on Thursday
KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th April, 2019) The proposed debate between the two Ukrainian presidential candidates who have made it to the runoff, Volodymyr Zelenskiy and incumbent President Petro Poroshenko, at Kiev's Olimpiyskiy stadium, can be considered a form of campaigning but not an official debate that is regulated by the country's election laws, the deputy chairman of the country's Central Election Commission (CEC) said on Thursday.Zelenskiy, who led the first round of the election with 30.24 percent of the vote against Poroshenko's 15.95 percent, said on Wednesday that he had accepted Poroshenko's invitation to hold a debate, on the condition that it would be held at the Olimpiyskiy stadium. Poroshenko agreed to hold the debate there, but a CEC regulation dictates that debates can only be held in a national broadcasting studio.
"The CEC regulation deals with those debates that are described in Article 62 of the law [on Ukrainian presidential elections]. Meanwhile, the debate that the two candidates are now discussing is not regulated by this article. They are now discussing the kind of debate that is regulated as a form of election campaigning," Evgeny Radchenko said, as quoted by the Ukrinform news agency.
He voiced the belief that Zelenskiy and Poroshenko were both referring to the kind of talks regulated by Article 58, which deals with discussions and press conferences.
Radchenko added that costs for these kinds of talks should be covered by candidates' campaign funds official debates are sponsored by the state.
He stressed that no campaigning was allowed until the CEC adopted a final protocol with the results of the first round of the election and officially announced the runoff.
In the meantime, Olga Chervakova, a Ukrainian lawmaker from Poroshenko's faction called Solidarity, voiced the belief that it would be necessary to rent the stadium for at least two days for the debate, and this would cost at least 240,000 hryvnias ($8,918).
"At least 120,000 hryvnias will be spent on the stadium debate organization. This is how much it costs to rent Olimpiyskiy for one day ... My experience in the tv sphere suggests that one day will be not enough, as ... preparations will be needed ... So we obviously have to multiply 120,000 hryvnias by two," Chervakova wrote on Facebook.
In her opinion, Poroshenko-Zelenskiy talks will be considered an official debate and will therefore be sponsored by the state.
Meanwhile, Zelenskiy is waiting for Poroshenko to apologize for his critical comments about him, to answer all the questions that Zelenskiy had put forward and to meet all the conditions for the debate to be held, the coordinator of Zelenskiy's campaign headquarters told the Ukrainian News Agency on Thursday.
Zelenskiy's conditions envisage that the debate should be held in presence of audience, that all the TV channels should be allowed to broadcast it and journalists representing any media outlet should be allowed to attend it.
The runoff between Zelenskiy and Poroshenko is scheduled for April 21. The law states that any debate should be held on the last Friday before this date which would make it on April 19 between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. local time (16:00-19:00 GMT), and should also be broadcast live.
