Ukraine President-Elect Says Commission Trying to Prevent Snap Parliament Election

Ukrainian President-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy won a landslide election last week over outgoing President Petro Poroshenko. While the vote wasn’t close and there has been no serious complaint of irregularities, the election commission has still not officially announced Zelenskiy’s victory.

This means he’s still president-elect and not president, meaning he still has no formal authority. One commission spokesman claimed the result would be declared on April 30, but Zelenskiy believes the commission intends to drag this out beyond May 27.

The problem is Zelenskiy wants to call a snap election for parliament, hoping to use his popularity to get some MPs from his party into parliament. Currently, he hasn’t a single MP, but he cannot dissolve parliament until he’s actually president.

If Zelenskiy is unable to dissolve parliament, his ability to deliver on promised reforms, with an eye on keeping foreign aid flowing, will be in serious doubt. Indeed, it’s unclear if he’s even going to be able to appoint new cabinet ministers with literally no MPs in his party.