'So I kept my word,' he says, signing bill for redo of disputed vote


KIEV, Jan. 26 – Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Groysman has signed a bill on holding early elections for mayor of Kryvy Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region, on March 27, which was passed by the parliament on December 23.

"So I kept my word. The resolution on the abolition of the results of voting for the bill on the elections in Kryvy Rih has been considered first thing today and hasn't received the required number of votes. After that, I got the legal right to sign this bill without delay and so I did," he wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Verkhovna Rada voted down the proposal introduced by the Opposition Bloc to abolish the parliament's resolution dated December 23, 2015 to hold the early elections of the mayor of Kryvy Rih (No. 3613).

According to the information posted on the website of the Verkhovna Rada, after the bill was signed by the speaker it was sent to the president for signature.

According to the data published on the website of the Central Election Commission, representative of the Opposition Bloc Yuriy Vilkul won the second round of the mayoral elections in Kryvy Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region, which took place on November 15. His rival, a candidate of the Samopomich Party, Yuriy Myloboh, filed complaints about the violations of the electoral process, and criminal proceedings were launched into these violations.

The gap between the two candidates was 752 votes (0.42% of the vote), with Myloboh leading in six out of the seven districts of the city.

An ad hoc investigative commission of the Verkhovna Rada, which probes the election irregularities during the mayoral election in Kryvy Rih, recommended holding the early elections there. The Verkhovna Rada registered a bill on holding the early elections of the mayor of Kryvy Rih on March 27, 2016 (No. 3613).

On December 23, 2015, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine voted for holding the early elections of mayor of Kryvy Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region, on March 27, 2016. A total of 239 lawmakers voted for this decision on Wednesday. (om/ez)