First Deputy Parliament Speaker Oleksandr Lavrynovych believes that the next presidential elections should be held in January 2010.
Lavrynovych announced this to Ukrainian News.
«For me, it is clear that the president’s term of office begins at the moment that he is sworn in, i.e. [the next presidential elections should be held] in January 2010,» Lavrynovych said.
He expressed regret that the presidential term of office that was stipulated in the 1996 version of the Ukrainian Constitution was changed in 2004.
«I do not think that it was extremely necessary politically. It was simply a desire for the current president, for him not to lose three weeks of presidential power. Therefore, such [an amendment] was made,» Lavrynovych said.
According to Lavrynovych, there is no specific date for holding presidential elections and the date changes with every new election because of the because of the stipulation of a five-year presidential term.
«We started by electing [the president of Ukraine] in October, we moved to January, the next will be April or May, then it will be August in the version [of the Constitution] that exists today,» Lavrynovych said.
He stressed that such amendments were made to the Constitution with the aim of extending the head of state’s term of office for as long as possible.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the amendments that were made to the Constitution in 2004 have prompted a debate over the date of the next presidential elections.
The relevant amendments, which stipule that presidential elections are to be held on the last Sunday of the final month of the President of Ukraine’s fifth year in office, came into effect on January 1, 2006, i.e. after incumbent President Viktor Yuschenko had already been elected.
When incumbent President Viktor Yuschenko was elected, the law stipulated that presidential elections were to be held on the last Sunday in October of the president’s fifth year in office.
The Central Electoral Commission’s Deputy Chairman Andrii Mahera believes that December 27, 2009, is the most probable date of the next presidential elections.
