Bohdan doubts new parliament will meet by Sept 1

He said this at a briefing on Tuesday, July 30, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"Being a lawyer, I understand the timetable for the Verkhovna Rada to start working. Apparently, it will not have time to start work by September 1. It depends not on us, but on a great number of lawsuits that do not allow the CEC to form the final composition of the Verkhovna Rada," Bohdan said.

When asked if early local elections would be held and when this could happen, he said that such elections could not be held without the adoption of a respective law.

"The configuration of such a law is still unclear to me. We also have a problem of unfinished local government reform because elections to some merged territorial communities were held and to some others were not. According to the logic of the legislation, first, it would be necessary to finish the formation of merged territorial communities and then hold repeat elections in the new reality," Bohdan said.

He also said it was difficult for him to say whether the law would be adopted because it requires "a dialogue with deputies, who are all personalities."

op