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Zelensky to dissolve Ukrainian parliament, says aide

Earlier, Zelensky’s team published a video calling for the dissolution of the Rada

Ukrainian President-Elect Vladimir Zelensky Anna Marchenko/TASS

Ukrainian President-Elect Vladimir Zelensky

© Anna Marchenko/TASS

KIEV, May 17. /TASS/. Ukrainian President-Elect Vladimir Zelensky will initiate the dissolution of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament), his aide Dmitry Razumkov said on the 1+1 TV channel.

"Naturally, Zelensky will initiate the dissolution of the Rada, because there are several preconditions for that, namely the lack of a coalition in parliament," he said.

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"In my opinion, there is no coalition, because the two coalition fractions do not have 226 people’s deputies," Razumkov stated.

Earlier, Zelensky’s team published a video calling for the dissolution of the Rada. During his election campaign, Zelensky mentioned the possibility of a snap parliamentary election. The next Verkhovna Rada election is planned for late October 2019. Zelensky’s inauguration is set for May 20.

In accordance with the Ukrainian constitution, the president may dissolve the parliament and call for a snap election no later than six months before the planned election, that is, no later than May 27. Current Ukrainian parliament speaker Andrey Parubiy has repeatedly stated that there are no grounds for the parliament’s dissolution.

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