Ukraine’s Central Election Commission on Wednesday refused to register jailed ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko as candidates in the forthcoming parliamentary polls.
The Ukrainian election authority excluded the two from the election list of the opposition Batkyvshchina pary on the grounds that Ukrainian laws prohibit people who are serving a prison term from running in national elections.
Tymoshenko, who was first on the list, was sentenced to seven years in prison last October for exceeding her authority in negotiating a 2009 natural gas agreement with Russia. She will head back to court on August 14 to face charges that she embezzled around $400 million in the 1990s while serving as the head of energy transporter United Energy Systems of Ukraine.
Lutsenko, number five on the list, was sentenced to four years in prison in February for embezzlement and abuse of office while in government.
The campaign season for the October 28 parliamentary election officially began on August 1.
