The lawmakers are suspected of running an illegal vote-rigging scheme
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian parliament, Kiev, Ukraine, February 6, 2024. © Getty Images / Sergii Kharchenko/NurPhoto
[RT] Dozens
of Ukrainian lawmakers have been implicated in vote rigging, the head
of the country’s Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO)
told the media on Monday.
In late December, the anti-graft agency
reported busting a bribery ring in parliament, in the most recent
high-profile corruption scandal to shake Ukraine in recent months.
“In total, SAPO has implicated 41 deputies of the ninth convocation of the Verkhovna Rada,” Aleksandr Klimenko said, using the Ukrainian name for the national legislature.
Over
the past decade, SAPO and its sister agency – Ukraine’s National
Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) – have implicated some 79 former and
current Ukrainian lawmakers, he added.
According to Klimenko,
anti-graft agencies uncovered a scheme in which numerous Rada deputies
received cash bribes of up to $5,000 for their votes over several years.
NABU and SAPO made the announcement with Ukraine still reeling
from a massive corruption scandal in the state nuclear operator
Energoatom, which implicated Vladimir Zelensky’s long-time associate,
Timur Mindich. Two ministers and the Ukrainian leader’s chief of staff
Andrey Yermak resigned in the wake of the revelations.
Zelensky’s Servant of the People party has held a voting majority in
the current, ninth Rada, since it was elected in a snap vote in 2019.
However, Zelensky has refused to call parliamentary or presidential
elections since, citing martial law amid the Ukraine conflict. Earlier
this month, he moved to extend martial law and general mobilization
another 90 days, effectively postponing the polls once again.
Moscow
maintains that Zelensky is an illegitimate leader, as his term expired
in May 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Zelensky’s
status leaves the legality of any peace deal signed with him in doubt.