Dead people voted to recall the mayor of Uman: court suspended the decision to remove Pletniova from office

16 September, the Cherkasy District Administrative Court suspended the action of the political party “For the Future” decision to recall Iryna Pletniova from the office of mayor of Uman. This was the first such case in Ukraine after the procedure for recalling a mayor by popular initiative was used. It is worth noting that the so‑called “referendum” became a continuation of a prolonged political conflict between Pletniova and Member of Parliament Anton Yatsenko, who had previously been her political ally. “We submitted to the court a number of established facts about violations in the process of the so‑called ‘signature collection.’ Forgery in the signature sheets. A large portion of the sheets was signed in identical handwriting. Another large portion of the sheets — people who have no connection to our community. The most terrible cases are when the sheets are signed by dead people whose deaths were recorded in 2025. This cynicism reflects the entire human and professional nature of the well‑known MP. The procedure for creating the initiative group and collecting signatures was also violated. And the court took all of this into account. I believe in legality and the rule of law. It is not for MPs to twist the arms of local self-government. I will continue to fight lawlessness, work, fulfill my duties and defend my rights exclusively within the legal framework,” Pletniova wrote on the social network 17 September. Yatsenko is a deputy of the “For the Future” party, which adopted the final decision to remove Pletniova from office. He publicly supported the initiative to recall the mayor. “Nothing terrible. This will not stop the process. We are ready for this. We will now appeal on this matter to the National Anti‑Corruption Bureau and the High Council of Justice,” the deputy is quoted as saying by the site “Novyny Cherkas.” According to Cherkasy experts, Anton Yatsenko specializes in organizing legal trolling of inconvenient officials. “Yatsenko is a well‑known legal troll. In his confrontation with local self‑government, political and business opponents, he literally spams various controlling and inspection bodies with parliamentary inquiries, appeals, and all sorts of complaints. In fact, the legal consequences of such actions are few, but people sometimes get scared. Pletniova was one of the first to decide not to be frightened and to respond. That is why he ‘chases’ her. This is simply political revenge, with possible consequences for the community and the region,” lawyer Serhii Nadtochii said, Novyny Cherkas writes. What preceded it Before the recall, Pletniova headed Uman since 2020. She ran from the “For the Future” party and received 6074 votes in the election, or 33,3% of the voters’ votes. On 8 September the “For the Future” party adopted the decision to recall Iryna Pletniova from the office of mayor of Uman. The initiative group reported collecting 6710 voters’ signatures for Pletniova’s recall. After verification, the Uman City Territorial Election Commission recognized 6421 signatures as valid. After that the TEC sent the documents to the “For the Future” party, from which Pletniova had been elected mayor. According to the publication “18000”, the next court hearing in the case is scheduled for 22 October 2026 at 14:00. As FACTS wrote, after Anton Yatsenko’s return to the ranks of the “For the Future” party in May 2026, he initiated the process of recalling the mandates of deputies of the Cherkasy Regional and Uman City Councils and personally the mayor of Uman, Iryna Pletniova.