Poroshenko's rep to appeal to CEC on Wed regarding changes to debate order – election HQ's spokesperson

Representative of the election headquarters of the presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko, Ruslan Knyazevych, will appeal to the Central Election Commission (CEC) on Wednesday regarding changes to the order of conducting debates by presidential candidates, so that Poroshenko will have the opportunity to attend the debates in the studio of the Public TV and at the National Sports Complex (NSC) Olympiyskiy Stadium.

"Today, on behalf of our candidate, his representative at the Central Election Commission Ruslan Knyazevych appeals to the CEC with the idea of making changes to the regulation on the procedure for holding debates," head of Poroshenko's election campaign headquarters Oleh Medvedev said at a briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.

According to him, this decision is motivated by the fact that Poroshenko's opponent, Volodymyr Zelensky, refused any other time for holding the debate on Friday, April 19.

Medvedev recalled that the candidates' debate at Public Television should begin at 20:00 on Friday.

"We think that 19:00 was suggested with the expectation that the law-abiding president and citizen Poroshenko is to be present at Public Television by 20:00 and allegedly because of this will not be able to take part at 19:00 [at the NSC Olympiyskiy debate)," he said.

The speaker of the headquarters stressed that Poroshenko is ready for debates at both the Public Television and the NSC Olympiyskiy.