KIEV, August 25 (RIA Novosti) – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has decided to dissolve the country’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, his spokesman Svyatoslav Tsegolko said on Monday.
“The majority of these lawmakers passed dictatorship laws that claimed the lives of the Heavenly Hundred [a term denoting activists killed during pro-European protests in the fall and winter of 2013–2014]. They must answer for this,” Tsegolko wrote in his official Twitter account.
The spokesman quoted the president as saying that “it was the only decision that is correct and responsible.”
The president said the new parliamentary elections in Ukraine will take place on October 26.
A 30-day deadline, set for the Verkhovna Rada to form a new coalition, expired earlier on Sunday, which formally paved the way for the president to announce the dissolution of the country’s parliament.
Following his election in May 25 Poroshenko has repeatedly highlighted the necessity to hold early parliamentary elections saying the current composition failed to meet the interests of the Ukrainian society.
The current parliament was elected in fall 2012. In accordance with Ukraine’s law, the next parliamentary election was supposed to take place in 2017.
