Ukrainian parliament to consider impeachment bill on Sept 12

The Verkhovna Rada plans to consider a bill on the president's impeachment on Thursday, September 12, the first deputy head of the Servant of the People faction, Oleksandr Korniyenko, has said.

"A week ago, there was a meeting at which the president gave a series of instructions, and we are very pleased that over the past week we have managed to work at committees on some of those bills and those legislative acts that will introduce changes in the economic sector, in political regulation. The bill on the special procedure for removing the president from office is on the agenda on Thursday. This is the impeachment bill, which has been talked about a lot, but we will consider it and vote for the first time," he said at a meeting of the parliament's conciliation council on Monday, September 9.

In addition, he said, anti-corruption initiatives should be considered in parliament since September 17.

Bill No. 1012 on the special procedure for removing the president of Ukraine from office (impeachment) provides that the Verkhovna Rada may remove the president from office by impeachment only in the case of treason or other crime. The impeachment procedure will be initiated by a constitutional majority of people's deputies.

After the decision on charges against the president is made, the Verkhovna Rada will appeal to the Constitutional Court (for an opinion on the constitutionality of the procedure of investigation and the consideration of the case on the impeachment of the president) and the Supreme Court (for an opinion that the acts of which the president is accused contain signs of treason or other crime).

It is envisaged that the decision to impeach the president will be deemed adopted if it gets support from at least three-quarters of MPs from the constitutional composition of the Verkhovna Rada.

op