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Parliament revises number of election watchdog members (UPD)

The bill is blocked by three MPs.

Parliament revises number of election watchdog members (UPD)
Photo: 24news.com.ua

Parliament has increased the number of Central Electoral Commission members from 15 to 17 to unblock the appointment of new members.

Opposition Bloc, Self-Reliance and Fatherland did not give a single vote in favour of the bill.

There are only two out of 15 members of the CEC whose mandate has not expired. These are Oleh Didenko and Kateryna Makhnytska.

The president nominated 14 new members to fill 13 vacancies on 5 February 2018 but MPs have not endorsed them yet. The Opposition Bloc has no representation at all.

In July, parliament refused to vote on new CEC members out of concerns that the majority of new members will end up under President Petro Poroshenko's control.

Later in the day, three MPs - Alyona Shkrum (Fatherland), Ihor Shurma and Mykhaylo Papiyev (Opposition Bloc) - registered a bill cancelling the revision of the CEC composition. Thus, speaker Andriy Parubuy may not sign the bill bringing the number of CEC members to 17 until the later bill is considered.

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