KIEV: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko proposed fresh legislation on Thursday aimed at fighting corruption, after the constitutional court threw out a previous anti-graft law, raising concerns that the country was backtracking on the issue.
Poroshenko’s record on tackling corruption is a central topic of debate ahead of his bid for a second term in a presidential election on March 31. He trails in the polls and critics accuse him of not doing enough to root out entrenched corruption.
Opposition lawmakers called him to be impeached earlier this week over allegations involving a close ally.
Ukraine passed a law criminalizing illicit enrichment in 2015 as a condition of it receiving bailout loans from the International Monetary Fund that kept the country afloat during a steep recession. It was also a precondition for the European Union to grant visa-free travel to Ukrainians.
But the constitutional court overturned the law this week on the grounds that it contravened the presumption of innocence, sparking concern in the EU and among anti-corruption campaigners and the anti-corruption bureau.
“This morning I have signed, and now I am commissioning to register, a presidential bill which takes into account the remarks but preserves the key position – the inevitability of criminal punishment for illicit enrichment,” said Poroshenko, who came to power after the Maidan protests in 2014.
