On February 14, by a decision of the bureau of the Lutsk city party organization of the All-Ukrainian Union "Batkivshchyna," by a majority of votes (5 – "for," 2 – "against," 2 – "abstained"), First Deputy Head of the Volyn Regional State Administration Bohdan Shyba was expelled from the party membership.
Head of the Lutsk city organization of the All-Ukrainian Union "Batkivshchyna" Oleksandr Viktorov commented on the situation as follows: "On January 22, 2006, the leader of the faction of the All-Ukrainian Union 'Batkivshchyna' in the city council, Volodymyr Lytvyniuk, was officially nominated as a candidate for the position of Lutsk city mayor. By self-nominating for the same position, Mr. Shyba not only ignored the opinion of the city organization but also violated the party charter, which states that every party member is obliged to support candidates nominated by the party, campaign for them, and vote for them. Mr. Shyba joined us quite recently, received his party card only in January of this year, so he was an ordinary party member and should have taken into account the opinion of party veterans... With our decision, we showed that everyone is equal before the party charter, even first deputy governors... And if we consider that he had previously managed to be in several other parties, including in the NSHU, then I can only state that he stayed in 'Batkivshchyna' the shortest," added Oleksandr Viktorov.
At the meeting of the city election commission on February 14, Mr. Shyba B.P. was denied registration as a candidate for the position of Lutsk city mayor due to inaccuracies in the submitted documents.
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