Court declared actions of Central Election Commission on NATO referendum illegal

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Today, on December 11, Pechersky District Court in Kiev pronounced a verdict on an administrative claim of Ukrainian citizen Osadchy to the Ukrainian Central Election Commission calling illegal inactiveness of the Central Election Commission in summing up results of signature collection for conducting a national referendum on joining NATO. Press office of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party that initiated the referendum told about it to a REGNUM correspondent. The court obliged the Central Election Commission to fulfill its duty and sum up the results of the signature collection initiative.

Collection of signatures for holding a national referendum was held from October 2005 to March 2006. Overall, 4,664,902 Ukrainian citizens signed petitions to conduct the referendum with following questions: “Do you agree that Ukraine becomes a member to NATO?” and “Do you support Ukraine’s participation in the United Economic Area together with the Russian Federation, the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Republic of Belarus, in accordance with Treaty on Establishing United Economic Area signed on September 19, 2003?”. The proceedings on Osadchy’s claim started on November 16, 2006, and on December 8, President Yushchenko’s secretariat announced failure of the effort to initiate a referendum concerning Ukraine’s joining NATO. “There are no legal grounds to conduct the referendum initiated by some political forces on Ukraine’s joining NATO,” head of the presidential secretariat Viktor Baloga said then.