Verkhovna Rada to reconvene

Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada will continue the work of its seventh session with a full plenary meeting on August 15. Planes have been chartered to bring back vacationing national deputies to the Ukrainian capital from Crimea.

In early August national deputies began calling for the resumption of the seventh session prior to August 18, at which time President Leonid Kuchma could constitutionally dissolve the Verkhovna Rada if it failed to resume its plenary work within 30 days.

Parliament held its last plenary meeting on July 18, then continued to work in committees and in districts. President Kuchma repeatedly said he does not plan to dissolve the current Verkhovna Rada, and on August 8 predicted that parliamentary elections would take place in March 1998.

Earlier, during his Constitution Day address on June 27, the Ukrainian president had called for the postponement of the March elections. On August 8 he reversed himself, claiming he had proposed postponing elections because five parliamentary factions had approached him with that request.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, August 17, 1997, No. 33, Vol. LXV

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