“If you still don’t understand what’s going on in the Rada (Verkhovna Rada – Ed.), why it is being blocked, I will explain it,” Aronets wrote. “The Party of Regions has pushed through a provision disguised as economic law under which Klitschko may be denied registration as candidate for presidency. This is amendments to the Tax Code, specifically: ‘Art. 170.11.1 shall be supplemented with the following sentence: An individual that has permanent residence permit on the territory of a foreign country shall be considered an individual who does not reside in Ukraine’ and ‘Item 70.1 of Art. 70 shall be supplemented with the following paragraph: An individual who is resident of a foreign country, i.e. does not reside in Ukraine, may be registered as tax payer at the place where he or she stays (resides) on the territory of Ukraine.’”
“This means that, since Klitschko was paying taxes in Germany, he is qualified as a resident of a foreign country. So he has not resided in Ukraine for the ten years as required for a candidate for presidency!” Aronets wrote.
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Today, the Verkhovna Rada passed the law to amend the Tax Code on registration of taxpayers. The draft law was initiated by the Cabinet of Ministers and passed with 239 votes. 38 voted against it, 1 abstained from voting, and 136 MPs did not vote. UDAR’s Yaroslav Dubnevych was the opposition MP who supported it.
Subsequently, opposition MPs have blocked the Verkhovna Rada.
The media reported earlier that violation of the requirement for a candidate for presidency to reside in Ukraine for at least the past ten years could be used as a tool to prevent Vitaliy Klitscko from running in the presidential election.
Klitschko denied the fact that he has not resided in Ukraine for the past ten years and said that he does not see legal grounds for being banned to run for presidency.
