On May 21st Volodymyr Zelensky met with the leaders of parliament factions and groups at the Administration of the President of Ukraine. They discussed the issue of disbanding the Verkhona Rada and agreed on conducting a snap election this July.
After the meeting, Andriy Bohdan, a presidential advisor for legal issues, said that the decree on dissolving the Verkhovna Rada would be signed within the next few days. In his words, the most acceptable date of an extraordinary election will be July 21st. “In our opinion, the consultations have been very constructive. There were doubts concerning the constitutionality of the decree and a possibility that it might be disputed. Nevertheless, all factions declared their readiness to go to the elections on condition that such decree will be available”, said the presidential advisor.
During the meeting with the Parliament leaders Volodymyr Zelensky proposed to call an extraordinary session to amend the election laws. For instance, he offered to lower the threshold for political parties to be elected to the Verkhovna Rada from the current 5% to 3% and to abolish the majority voted system replacing it with the elections according to party lists.
Ukrainian news agencies inform that the President of Ukraine is going to request the Speaker to call an extraordinary session on Wednesday, May 22nd.
