KIEV, January 3. /TASS/. The decision taken by the Ukraine’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC) to shut down all polling stations in Russia threatens with improper procedures during elections of the Ukrainian president scheduled on March 31 of this year, leader of the Ukrainian Choice - People’s Right movement and member of the Opposition Platform - For Life, Viktor Medvedchuk, said on Wednesday.
"Such CEC decision made at the very start of the election campaign paves the way to various falsifications and evidences that authorities continue the totalitarian course of limiting constitutional rights of citizens," Medvedchuk wrote in Facebook.
The CEC decisions "contradicts the Constitution of Ukraine and international legal norms stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights," Medvedchuk said. It can already be said that the election campaign of 2019 will leave its mark in the history of Ukraine as the most sordid and unlawful, violating constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens," the politician said.
The Ukraine’s Central Election Commission introduced amendments to the decree on polling stations on December 31, 2018, closing all polling stations in Russia. It follows from the decree that Ukrainians present in the Russian territory can exercise their voting right at stations in Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Finland.