Ukraine's CEC Denies Zelenskiy's Accusations Of Delaying Election Result Announcement

KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th April, 2019) Ukraine's Central Election Commission (CEC) was surprised by Ukrainian president-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy's allegations that it was purposefully delaying the announcement of the presidential election results in an attempt to delay his inauguration, the deputy chairman of the CEC said on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Zelenskiy said in a video posted to his Facebook that the CEC was delaying the release of the election results in order to postpone the president-elect's inauguration until after May 27, which would prevent him from potentially dissolving Ukraine's parliament called the Verkhovna Rada. According to the Ukrainian constitution the president cannot dissolve the Rada if it has less than six month before its term expires, which, in this case, is on October 27.

"I am surprised ... the CEC is an independent body which performs its duties independently from other government bodies.

The CEC has exemplified its independence throughout the entire election process. If someone has any doubt about this, I would like to see some evidence for this," Evgeny Radchenko told the Ukrainian Pryamoy broadcaster.

Radchenko also noted that the CEC has 10 days to release the election results and said that the commission was actually working ahead of schedule.

"Just yesterday we received results from 104 local election commission. This is unusually fast. CEC is working effectively and quickly ... We are ahead of schedule," Radchenko added.

The Ukrainian runoff presidential election between incumbent President Poroshenko and President-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy was held on Sunday. According to the CEC, Zelenskiy took 73.22 percent of the vote and Poroshenko received 24.45 percent. The inauguration of the new president should take place before June 3.