Official: It is Ukraine's right to prohibit Russian elections on Ukrainian territory
To allow or deny elections within its territory is a sovereign right of Ukraine. It should not give anyone authorization, the Deputy Head of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine, Andriy Mahera, said in his comments to GORDON.
According to Mahera, the decision of the Ukrainian authorities on the prohibition of conducting elections for the State Duma of the Russian Federation within the territory of Ukraine on the 18th of September is consistent with international law.
"There is a misconception that the diplomatic mission is the foreign state's territory. This is not so. The Consulates and Embassies of Russia are still clearly Ukraine's territory. Another issue is that the premises are subject to the principle of extraterritoriality. There are certain privileges and immunities in accordance with international law. However, to allow or deny elections within its territory is a sovereign right of Ukraine. Ukraine doesn't have to explain to anyone why it does that. So, it is possible to prevent voting in the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation," the Deputy Head said.
In his opinion, there is no critical need to prevent the vote in Kyiv, Lviv or Kharkiv.
"However, if the Ukrainian government makes this decision, it will be completely legal," Mahera said.
He noted that if elections are held in the occupied Crimea and deputies are elected to the State Duma, Ukraine will be able to block the return of the Russian delegation at the next session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
"Half of the deputies in the State Duma are chosen by the proportional system, half are based on uninominal constituencies. Such constituencies were created in the Crimea and Sevastopol. After the voting in Russia there will be the problem of the legitimacy of the new composition of the Russian Parliament and who represents the State Duma. And the question is, will this really be an additional advantage for Ukraine at the next session of PACE to prevent a return of the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly," the expert said.
Elections to the Lower House of the Russian Parliament – the State Duma – are scheduled for the 18th of September, 2016.
On the 10th of September, 2016 the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, instructed the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin, to inform the Russian leadership about the impossibility of holding elections to the Duma within Ukrainian territory.
The Director-General for Policy and Communications of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Oleksii Makeiev, said that the Ministry has already made the demand not to hold elections within the territory temporarily occupied by Russia or the territories of the embassies and consulates, as this violates international law and Ukrainian legislation.
Previously, Klimkin stated that the organization of the elections to the Russian Parliament within the occupied Crimea is contrary to legal norms. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (Parliament) addressed the international community with this concern.
The Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation called the statement by Kyiv the “discrimination" of 80,000 Russian citizens living in Ukraine and expressed its intention to organize elections in the embassies and consulates in Kharkiv, Odessa and Lviv for the employees of diplomatic missions.