MPs appeal against Dnipropetrovsk renaming at Constitutional Court

"On June 15 the Constitutional Court of Ukraine received a constitutional presentation of 48 deputies on the compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine (constitutionality) of the Verkhovna Rada resolution about renaming the city of Dnipropetrovsk (Dnipropetrovsk region) in connection with the violation of the procedure established by the Constitution of Ukraine for its consideration and adoption," the court statement says. According to the press service, in accordance with the rules of the Constitutional Court the deputies' presentation was sent to the court's registry for studying. The constitutional query, whose text is posted on the website of the Constitutional Court, states that the constitutional proceedings will involve the authors of the query – members of the Opposition Bloc faction Dmytro Shpenov, Vasyl Nimchenko and Dmytro Kolesnikov. According to the authors, the Verkhovna Rada violated the deadlines for passing resolutions of such kind. The author of the query also points out that the procedure of voting of people's deputies was violated. The document notes that the city's renaming without amending the Constitution is a violation of the Basic Law. In addition, the authors of the constitutional query believe that the will of the local community was ignored. "While passing the resolution of the Verkhovna Rada on renaming the city of Dnipropetrovsk (Dnipropetrovsk region), Articles 5, 6, 8, 11, 19, 38, 83, 84, 133 of the Constitution of Ukraine were violated," the authors of presentation said. As reported, on May 15, 2015 Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko signed the so called law on decommunization: 'On the condemnation of the communist and national socialist (Nazi) regimes and prohibition of propaganda of their symbols'. This law prohibits the Soviet and Nazi symbols, including the geographical names. Non-affiliated MP Andriy Denysenko registered in the Verkhovna Rada a draft resolution No. 3864 to rename the city of Dnipropetrovsk into Dnipro to execute the decommunization law. On February 15, 2016 the Verkhovna Rada Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government supported the initiative to rename the city of Dnipropetrovsk into Dnipro to execute the decommunization law. On May 19 247 people's deputies voted to rename the city of Dnipropetrovsk into Dnipro pursuant to the law on decommunization.