London, Oct 25 (ANI): Ukrainian heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko has announced that he will run in the country's 2015 presidential election, in response to a bill passed in parliament that bars candidates who have lived outside Ukraine during the past decade.
Klitschko, who has permanent resident status in Germany, is the first declared contender against the incumbent President Viktor Yanukovych and has actively campaigned against what he calls Yanukovych's 'authoritarian policies'.
According to the BBC, the new bill, which also amended Ukraine's current tax code, states that if a Ukrainian national holds permanent resident status in another country they cannot be considered a resident of Ukraine, with the constitution saying that a presidential candidate must be a resident in Ukraine for 10 years prior to polling day.
Stating that the bill does not intimidate him and will not stop him, Klitschko said that he would run for president in order to head off these various schemes and the president's attempts at getting even with him as a possible candidate, adding that the amendment clearly had a 'political context'.
The boxer, whose party came third in last year's parliamentary elections, further said that his main goal for Ukraine is to turn it into a modern country with European standards of life, adding that they cannot be a democratic country with political prisoners. (ANI)
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