The Latest: Ukraine’s leader vows to end lawmaker immunity
Posted July 21, 2019 6:16 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
KIEV, Ukraine — The Latest on Ukraine’s parliamentary election (all times local):
1:10 p.m.
Ukraine’s president says one of the first tasks of the country’s new parliament should be to consider a lifting a law granting immunity from prosecution for members of parliament.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy made the comment Sunday after casting his ballot in the early election to choose a new Verkhovna Rada parliament.
Zelenskiy took office in May, riding a wave of dissatisfaction over Ukraine’s endemic corruption. Parliamentary immunity is widely seen as contributing to corruption.
He told reporters “at last, we must take away immunity.”
Pre-vote polling showed Zelenskiy’s party getting the largest share of support in the election, but it is unclear if that will result in winning a majority of parliament’s 424 seats.
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8 a.m.
Ukrainians are voting in an early parliamentary election in which the new party of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is set to take the largest share of votes.
Polls ahead of Sunday’s balloting showed Zelenskiy’s Servant of the People party getting support from a little more than half of those who intended to vote. But only 225 of the 424 seats to be filled in the Verkhovna Rada parliament are being chosen by party list; the rest are single-mandate seats, whose distribution could differ from nationwide sentiment.
Zelenskiy, who took office in May, called the election three months ahead of schedule because the parliament was dominated by his opponents. He is seeking a majority that would support his promised fight against Ukraine’s endemic corruption.
His “Servant of the People” party — named after the television comedy in which he played a teacher who unexpectedly becomes president — is supported by 52% of the Ukrainians who intend to vote, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.
A party led by one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest associates, tycoon Viktor Medvedchuk, is polling in second place with about 10%, followed by the European Solidarity party of former President Petro Poroshenko, whom Zelenskiy defeated in a landslide in the country’s presidential election.
The Associated Press
