Appeal Against Decisions, Actions or Omissions of the Central Election Commission with Regard to Results of Elections or an All-Ukrainian Referendum Established by the Commission under the Restated Code of Administrative Judicial Procedure of Ukraine

Article title

Authors

Iurii Tsvirkun

Name of magazine

Legal journal «Law of Ukraine» (Ukrainian version)

Issue

2/2018

Сторінки

[148-163]

DOI

https://doi.org/10.33498/louu-2018-02-148

Annotation

Though a new concept has been formulated for the exercise of voting rights by citizens of Ukraine which provides for fundamental changes to the electoral system model, the restated Code of Administrative Judicial Procedure of Ukraine (hereinafter – CAJP of Ukraine) does not contain any provisions to regulate the relations in the case of review of decisions, actions or omissions of the Central Election Commission (hereinafter – CEC) after the process of elections or an all-Ukrainian referendum is completed. So far, scholars have not appropriately focused on the study of various aspects pertaining to appeals against decisions, actions or omissions of this subject of public administration, in particular, after it has established the results of elections (or a referendum). Hence arises the need of elaborating a uniform approach which would ensure the possibility of and the procedure for filing an appeal to court against the results of elections or an all-Ukrainian referendum established by the CEC, after expiration of the period for appeal and provided there are grounds to believe that these results are unreliable. The purpose of this article is to find the best possible ways for bridging the gaps in legislation based on the study of the specifics of appeals against decisions, actions or omissions of the CEC with regard to results of elections or an all-Ukrainian referendum established by the Commission under the restated CAJP of Ukraine, and also to offer the author’s own vision about the mechanisms of protection of an individual and reinstatement of his/her rights in relevant processes. The article notes that there are gaps in the current Ukrainian legislation regulating legal relations in the event of an appeal against decisions, actions or omissions of the CEC, in particular, unavailability of the legal procedure for checking whether a person elected by way of elections complied with requirements of law at the time of his/her election, as well as for verification in the future whether there are any gross violations of the electoral legislation which resulted in the establishment of unreliable results of the elections and indicate that the person concerned may not be considered legitimately elected. The author suggests considering amendments to national legislation by supplementing it with certain provisions for appeal against results of elections and an all-Ukrainian referendum. In case of such legal disputes, with the aim of implementing efficient mechanisms for reinstatement of breached rights and interests of elections (referendum) participants, there arises a need that the competence of administrative court to exercise control over the lawfulness of the results established by the CEC be expanded beyond these processes.

Keywords

Central Election Commission; the Code of Administrative Judicial Procedure of Ukraine; elections; referendum; results; appeal; powers of court

References

List of legal documents

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