Originally scheduled to be held at the end of October 2019, the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary elections were brought forward after newly inaugurated President Volodymyr Zelensky dissolved parliament early on 21 May 2019 (a day after his inauguration), despite claims that he did not have the legal grounds to do this. After Zelensky issued the decree (calling early elections), a lawsuit was filed to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, which seeked to declare the decree unconstitutional and therefore illegal. The court declared the decree to be legal on 20 June 2019. The official reason why Zelensky dissolved parliament was “a lack of a government coalition”.
Following the 2014 parliamentary elections, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc (PPB) party became the largest party, after securing 132 seats. On 21 November 2014, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, People’s Front, Self Reliance, Fatherland and the Radical Party all signed a coalition agreement. Arseniy Yatsenyuk became Prime Minister on 2 December 2014. The Radical Party left the coalition on 1 September 2015 in protest over a vote in parliament involving a change to the Ukrainian Constitution that would lead to decentralization and greater powers for areas held by separatists.
February 2016 saw the start of the fall of the Yatsenyuk cabinet after the economy minister Aivaras Abromavičius announced his resignation claiming the government did not have real commitment to fight corruption. On 17 and 18 February 2016, the Fatherland and Self Reliance parties left the coalition; meaning that the coalition became 5 deputies short of the 226 needed. On 14 April 2016, Volodymyr Groysman became the new Prime Minister and the Groysman government began with a new cabinet of ministers. Due to the short period of time available to organize the 2019 parliamentary election, current Ukrainian public procurement laws were not followed and to bypass this, local election commissions will work under deferred payment.
Sources and further reading:
Ukraine parliamentary election: What you need to know
https://www.euronews.com/2019/07/18/ukraine-parliamentary-election-what-you-need-to-know
Latest polls: Which parties have highest chance to get to Ukraine’s parliament?
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