The president has signed the law on vetting on the last possible day, Ukrayina TV reported on 9 October at 7pm Kyiv time. The document passed by Parliament back on 16 September defines the criteria for the cleansing of authorities. The law gives the Cabinet three months to fine-tune the vetting procedure and another year to implement it.
Some officials may lose their seats as fast as today. At least, the prosecutor-general promised that once the law came into force, he would lay off around 100 staff, and the justice minister announced a large package of personnel decisions regarding the Cabinet of Ministers.
The report said that the heads of government agencies who held office during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych, officials of all levels who have not left their posts during the Euro-Maydan protest movement in November 2013-February 2014, and law enforcers involved in crackdowns on protesters are from now on barred from holding government posts. The black list also includes the heads of the Communist authorities in the Soviet periiod, people from the list of corrupt persons and KGB agents.
Those accused of falsifying the 2004 presidential election and the 2012 presidential election will not be able to pass the check either.
The law, however, does not apply to MPs.
