Vasyl Lemak: “This year’s presidential election is taking take place in the legal situation that has never been in any country of the world”

This year’s presidential election is not just a regular election, it takes place in the legal situation that has never been in any country. And despite the threat of terrorist attacks and failure of voting in individual regions, it will be recognized since such precedents have been in Russia, which is very interested in disrupting the election in Ukraine. So says Vasyl Lemak, Doctor of Law, Professor, the Head of the theory of law and state department of UzhNU.

"This election was appointed after the events that we lawyers will be long evaluating, researching. In the aftermath of February 20, there was a threat of a collapse of the national law enforcement, constitutional law. Suddenly, the country’s president was gone, as well as most of the government and MPs. Such a unique legal situation had never occured in any other country," – the Professor said at the round table in UzhNU on "Presidential election in Ukraine – 2014: domestic politics, international influences and social expectations".

According to him, the re-formatted majority in the Parliament managed to take responsibility and to begin making decisions that saved the Ukrainian state. One of the first decisions was the appointment of the early presidential election.

"The Parliament made the right decision, given that almost for 2 days there had been no information about whether the president was executing his powers, – Vasyl Lemak said. – Today, the situation is also unique. Russia has scheduled military maneuvers near the border exactly on May 25. Part of the territory is temporarily occupied, another part is controlled by terrorist and separatist groups led by the military officers of another country. At the same Ukraine is conducting an ATO. A number of problems arises. But the situation is not that unprecedented. The election of the President of Russia in 2000, when Putin was elected, was similar: in Chechnya and several regions election was not held at all, mass terrorist attacks were organized. It did not affect the election that was held in Russia. Given the international experience, we can definitely say that in this regard, there is no threat to the election."