Vote nullified

The Supreme Court just handed down a decision voiding the Central Election Commission's finding. This nullifies the vote. The Court ordered new elections.

The head justice read the opinion and he was noticeably nervous reading it out. This is the judge who had no trouble at all during any of the hearings. He was forceful and no nonsense. But while reading this opinion, his voice quavered and he cleared his throat a number of times. I can only imagine the pressure these people were under. But these justices deserve credit for this. It was a unanimous vote.

I think this opinion will give the court a stature that it did not have. Good for them. I might have tried to do more but I am not in their shoes. What they did do though was very, very good for democracy, for their court and for the government in the end.

There are now two branches of government arrayed against the result. It will be more difficult for Kuchma to dink around anymore.

I would like to see if I can get a copy of the opinion. It would be interesting to see what they actually did and what the basis was.

Good for them.

UPDATE: According to Maidan, the Court ordered that a revote take place within 3 weeks. That is even better from my perspective for the authority of the Court and, of course, for the people. Good, good, good for them.

I read that there are members of the Court from all over Ukraine. If true, that will make it hard to argue that this is an East/West issue.