Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets with Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou at the Maximos Mansion in Athens, Greece, August 21, 2023. Theodore Manolopoulos/Greek Presidency Press Office/Handout via REUTERS Acquire Licensing Rights
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, responding to calls by a US senator this week to announce elections in 2024, said on Sunday voting could take place during wartime if partners shared the cost, legislators approved, and everyone got to the polls.
Elections cannot currently be held in Ukraine under martial law, which must be extended every 90 days and is next due to expire on Nov. 15, after the normal date in October for parliamentary polls but before presidential elections which would normally be held in March 2024.
Top American legislators visited Kyiv Aug. 23, among them Senator Lindsey Graham, who heaped praise on Kyiv’s fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin but said the country needed to show it was different by holding elections in wartime.
Zelenskiy, in a television interview with Natalia Moseichuk, an anchor for the 1+1 Channel, said he had discussed the issue with Graham, including the question of funding and the need to change the law.
“I gave Lindsey a very simple answer very quickly,” he said. “He was very pleased with it. As long as our legislators are willing to do it.”
He said it cost 5 billion hryvnia ($135 million) to hold elections in peacetime. “I don’t know how much is needed in wartime,” he said. “So I told him that if the US and Europe provide financial support …”
He added, “I will not take money from weapons and give it to elections. And this is stipulated by the law.”
Purohit cites failure of constitutional machinery, reminds CM of SC verdict, seeks report on ‘rampant drug abuse’.
Reminding CM Mann of a letter he wrote on August 1, the Governor said, “It appears that you are deliberately refusing to give the information asked by me.” (File Image)
The ongoing tussle between the Raj Bhawan and the Punjab government escalated sharply Friday with Governor Banwarilal Purohit Friday warning Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann that he could recommend President’s rule in the state and also launch criminal proceedings if the questions he had raised in the past in various letters were not answered.
The ruling Aam Aadmi Party hit back at Purohit saying the government was working within the constitutional framework and said if the President’s rule was to be imposed, it should be done in Manipur and Haryana, both BJP-ruled states. But the opposition Shiromani Akal Dal accused the AAP of deliberately adopting a “confrontationist attitude”.
Earlier, in a strongly-worded letter to Mann, the Governor pointed out that he was yet to receive replies to his previous letters and told the CM that he had “reason to believe that there is failure of the Constitutional machinery” in the state and that he was contemplating writing to the President of India.
Thailand’s fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra made a historic homecoming on Tuesday and was escorted to jail after years in exile, on a day when an ally and fellow tycoon was elected prime minister after winning a parliamentary vote.
The 74-year-old Thaksin, the billionaire founder of the electoral juggernaut Pheu Thai, finally made good on promises to go back to Thailand after a run of 15 years in self-exile, stealing the limelight from real estate mogul Srettha Thavisin as he prevailed for their party in parliament.
The return of Thailand’s most famous politician was met with hysteria. Thaksin was given a rapturous welcome after arriving in Bangkok on his private jet before being escorted by police to the Supreme Court, then to a prison to serve eight years for abuse of power and conflicts of interest.
Srettha’s victory paves the way for the populist Pheu Thai to form a new coalition government, ending weeks of uncertainty and stalemate in parliament after an election 100 days ago that threatened to weaken the political clout of the Southeast Asian country’s powerful military.
Srettha, 60, a political neophyte and former president of luxury property developer Sansiri (SIRI.BK), was thrust into the spotlight just a few months ago and won the backing of two-thirds of parliament, an outcome that had been far from certain given the military’s influence among hundreds of lawmakers.
“I will perform my duties to the best of my ability. I will work tirelessly to improve the livelihood of all Thais,” the 6-foot-3-inch (1.92-metre) Srettha told reporters at Pheu Thai’s headquarters, his voice drowned out by supporters chanting “Srettha, Srettha”.
Thailand gets a new PM
Srettha will be tasked with forming and holding together a potentially fragile coalition that includes parties created by the ultra-royalist army, which overthrew Pheu Thai governments in coups in 2006 and 2014.
Among those ousted was Thaksin, a former telecoms tycoon and owner of Premier League football club Manchester City, who was accused by the military of corruption, cronyism and disloyalty to the monarchy.
He fled abroad and was sentenced to jail in absentia in 2008. His sister Yingluck Shinawatra suffered an almost identical fate as prime minister a few years later. Both say the allegations against them were politically motivated.
POLITICAL DEAL?
Pheu Thai’s prime ministerial candidate, Srettha Thavisin who is the sole candidate nominated for a parliamentary vote, reacts while speaking to media at the party headquarters, in Bangkok, Thailand, August 22, 2023. REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa Acquire Licensing Rights
Thaksin’s return and Srettha’s surprisingly smooth ascent to the top job will add to speculation that the influential Thaksin had struck a deal with his foes in the military and political establishment for his safe return and, possibly, an early release from jail.
Thaksin and Pheu Thai have rejected such notions.
Tuesday’s events were the latest twist in a nearly two-decade power struggle between the Shinawatra family and its business allies on one side, and a nexus of royalists, generals and old money families that have long wielded influence over Thai governments and institutions.
As he emerged from the airport wearing a black suit, red tie and yellow lapel pin bearing the royal insignia, Thaksin clasped his hands in a traditional “wai” greeting to the crowd before kneeling and bowing in respect in front of a portrait of the king and queen.
Thaksin is still loved and loathed in equal measure in Thailand and hashtags about his return trended top on social media, with the country gripped by blow-by-blow coverage of his celebrated arrival and his prompt imprisonment.
Hundreds of red-shirted supporters carrying banners gathered at the airport, the court and outside the prison to greet him, many chanting “PM Thaksin”.
