"The court has not violated the law in any way. We should respect the accurate consideration of materials by the judges," the minister stressed.
According to him, the Ukrainian Supreme Court's decision to annul the results of the runoff presidential election "has brought the country back to the legal field."
The Supreme Court's decision must be fulfilled and respected by each Ukrainian citizen, Mr. Lavrinovich emphasized.
In his words, this decision can be discussed theoretically because it was made in inadequate conditions, however, the Court did not violate the existing laws.
The minister believes that imperfect legislation is not the problem of the Court. This is a legal problem.
"The Supreme Court took every effort to settle the post-election crisis and explained how the rights of citizens should be restored," the Ukrainian Justice Minister said.
The new elections will be held in other legal and political conditions with account for possible changes in the electoral legislation, Alexander Lavrinovich noted. In his opinion, the previous elections proved the necessity to change the order of making voters' lists, issuing absentee ballots, voting outside the polling stations and forming election commissions.
As regards the legislative demands to the new runoff, the minister said that ballot papers would contain two candidates, who gained the biggest number of votes in the first round.
If one of the nominees withdraws his candidacy no later than 10 days before the elections, the Ukrainian Central Election Commission will make a decision to include in ballot papers the candidate who took third place.
If one of the nominees withdraws his candidacy 10 days before the elections and less, the remaining challenger should gain at least 50% of the vote. Otherwise, the poll will be invalidated, Alexander Lavrinovich said.
Yesterday the Ukrainian Supreme Court invalidated the results of the November 21 runoff election and ordered to rerun the presidential poll. The Ukrainian Central Election Commission fulfilled the Supreme Court's order on Saturday. The new election was scheduled for December 26.
