Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Natalia Shaptala
held a meeting with the Head of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission Ambassador Albert Jónsson
Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Natalia Shaptala held a meeting with the Head of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission Ambassador Albert Jónsson.
The meeting was also attended by Legal Expert of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission Elisavet Karagiannidou, Assistant to Legal Expert of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission Olena Ashchenko; Head of the Secretariat of the Court Yaroslav Vasylkevych, First Deputy Head of the Secretariat of the Court – Head of the Department of Organisational Work of the Secretariat of the Court Larysa Biriuk.
Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Natalia Shaptala welcomed the guests and thanked for their constant attention to Ukraine. "Even though the Constitutional Court of Ukraine is not the subject of the election process, we are always closely following the mission", she said.
Natalia Shaptala noted that in its activity the Constitutional Court of Ukraine is considering issues related to political, in particular, electoral rights, and provided some statistical data. According to her, since 1998, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine has adopted about 20 decisions and provided 2 opinions on issues related to the electoral process. The Chairman of the Court pointed out some of these acts. For instance, on December 21, 2017, the Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine adopted the Decision No. 3-r/2017 in the case upon the constitutional petition of 49 People's Deputies of Ukraine concerning the conformity to the Constitution of Ukraine (constitutionality) of Articles 61.9, 105.3 of the Law of Ukraine "On Election of the People’s Deputies of Ukraine", paragraph 3 of Chapter II "Final and Transitional Provisions" of the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Election of the People’s Deputies of Ukraine" regarding the exclusion of candidates for People's Deputies of Ukraine from election party list in the multi-member constituency" (the case on the exclusion of candidates for People's Deputies of Ukraine from election party list in the multi-member constituency).
In addition, upon the request of the guests, she elaborated on the Decision of the Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine No. 6-r/2019 in the case upon the constitutional petition of 62 People’s Deputies of Ukraine regarding conformity to the Constitution of Ukraine (constitutionality) of the Decree of the President of Ukraine "On Early Termination of Powers of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Appointment of Early Elections" adopted on June 20, 2019 .
The Chairman of the Constitutional Court noted that, despite the fact that the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, when considering this case, was limited in time, the judges understood the extraordinary social significance of this issue, which imposed additional responsibility on the Court.
Natalia Shaptala emphasised the extraordinary significance of the acts adopted by the Court, in particular on the electoral process, and expressed the hope that the parliamentary elections in Ukraine would be held honestly, transparently and objectively.
Head of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission, Ambassador Albert Jónsson briefly presented the Mission. He informed that in order to monitor the extraordinary parliamentary elections to be held on July 21, 2019, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights launched its Election Observation Mission on June 11, 2019. According to him, the Mission will assess the upcoming elections regarding their compliance with the OSCE requirements, other international standards of democratic elections, as well as national legislation.
Ambassador Albert Jónsson noted that 100 long-term observers had already been involved. Soon, he added, 600
more short-term observers would join to work in the whole territory of Ukraine. "The main objective of the short-term observers is to monitor the election on election day," the Head of Mission emphasised. He also added that the preliminary findings would be provided by the Mission immediately after the end of the election, and the final ones - in two months.
Legal Expert of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission Elisavet Karagiannidou noted that the Mission had started its activity with the public part of the plenary session of the Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine in the case upon the constitutional petition of 62 People’s Deputies of Ukraine regarding conformity to the Constitution of Ukraine (constitutionality) of the Decree of the President of Ukraine "On Early Termination of Powers of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Appointment of Early Elections". "We were waiting for this decision, because it was directly related to the holding of elections," she added. Elisavet Karagiannidou also emphasised that the evaluation of the said decision would be included in the preliminary findings of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission.
The parties also discussed other relevant issues of constitutional justice and expressed their hope for further fruitful cooperation.
