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MPs from Party of Regions hit opponents as they try to prevent violation of law

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Volodymyr Struk, deputy of the parliamentary faction from the ruling Party of Regions hit Lesya Orobets, deputy of the opposition faction BYuT (Block of Yulia Tymoshenko), while she was trying to prevent him from casting a vote with another deputy’s personal card.

The current procedure foresees casting votes by personal cards – one deputy can vote only once with a personal card only. Using someone other’s card is prohibited by law and unofficially called “button-pushing”.

The incident occurred on 29 January, when Parliament was passing the law on amnesty for protesters, in its version suggested by a Party of Regions deputy.

Lesya Orobets described this event in a very emotional way on her Facebook page: “When the Party of Regions faction raped by Yanukovych casted their votes for their version of the draft law, there weren’t 232 votes, not even 226, they had at least 10-15 illegitimate cards. I was trying to prevent the button-pushing and Struk hit me harshly in the solar plexus with a professional, quick and bandit-type punch”.

Protesters claimed being against the adopted version of the law having called it “the law on hostages”, as it foresees release of the detained only in exchange for and under the condition that the protesters leave the barricades and vacate governmental and municipal buildings within 15 days from the day when the law comes in force.

“The Law on amnesty for participants of the protests in Ukraine was adopted at the sitting of Verkhovna Rada (parliamentary body) on Wednesday by force, pressure and fraud, in a way similar to casting the votes on 16 January (for the package of laws which violate human and civil rights and freedoms),” – says the joint statement of opposition factions leaders Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Vitaly Klitschko and Oleh Tyahnybok.

“Massive cases of “button-pushing” were registered when the law in question was being voted. “Button-pushing” violates constitutional requirements for each deputy to vote personally. Personal responsibility over violation of constitutional norms bears Viktor Yanukovych who yesterday arrived in the Parliament in person and by means of blackmail and intimidation forced his faction balancing on the edge of the split-up to come back to the session hall and push through the adoption of the law regardless of the lack of votes,” – says the statement.

Due to illegitimate voting President Viktor Yanukovych obtained an opportunity to claim the authorities had fulfilled all its responsibilities as to the resolution of the situation in Ukraine. He blamed the opposition that despite the cessions on the part of the authorities it continues aggravating the situation in the country. On their part the protesters are not going to leave the occupied positions and claim they will stand until Viktor Yanukovych resigns.

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