Verkhovna Rada begins battle for new chairman (05/24/98)

Verkhovna Rada begins battle for new chairman

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - In the first of what could be several attempts, the eight factions of the new Verkhovna Rada have nominated 14 candidates for the post of chairman. Few of the candidates are prominent or electable.

Political analysts and national deputies alike believe that no one will receive the votes needed to elect the chairman of the Parliament in the first round of voting and that this attempt is merely a game of political positioning, while more backroom politicking may be needed before viable candidates appear.

"The head of the Verkhovna Rada is not going to be elected in the first round," said a former chairman, Ivan Pliusch, outside the session hall on May 20 as nominees made presentations inside.

Ukraine's newly seated Verkhovna Rada began the process of electing its chairman on May 15, at the end of its first full week of plenary sessions and eight weeks after the March 29 elections in which the 450 seats of the Verkhovna Rada were filled in the country's first mixed-system elections.

On May 14 the Verkhovna Rada Secretariat registered eight parliamentary factions and their delegates. So far, 389 parliamentarians, out of 430 deputies who were sworn in, have joined factions.

At the time of registration, the Communist faction numbered 119 deputies; 84 deputies joined the faction of the National Democratic Party; Rukh united 47 deputies. The Hromada faction consisted of 39 deputies; 35 deputies joined the left-wing faction (Socialist/Peasants' Parties); 24 deputies make up the Green Party faction; 24 deputies formed the faction of the Social-Democratic Party (United); and the Progressive Socialist Party faction included 17 deputies. Additional deputies can join later. The Parliament also approved the formation of a special Reconciliation Committee that consists of faction delegates or their leaders.

Roman Zvarych, a newly elected national deputy who belongs to the Rukh faction, said the parties have withheld their strongest candidates because at this point no candidate can be sure of the 226 votes needed for election.

"We haven't yet gotten to the stage where we can speak of a genuine parliamentary majority," said Mr. Zvarych. "What we are now involved in is a very complex process of maneuvering, all sorts of very strange shows of strength." He said that it could take three rounds of voting before a chairman is elected.

Although for weeks conventional wisdom had it that such political notables as past Parliament chairman Oleksander Moroz, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Hennadii Udovenko, former Prime Minister Yevhen Marchuk, former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko and Petro Symonenko, the leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine, which has the largest political contingent in the new Verkhovna Rada, would run for the leadership post, only Mr. Symonenko's party nominated him.

While Mr. Marchuk has said formally that he is not running for chairman because his eyes are on the presidential seat and elections in late 1999 and Mr. Lazarenko is widely believed to have foregone a run for the parliamentary chairmanship in favor of power-brokering the final outcome, the rest of the possible candidates have remained quiet and are thought to be waiting for the second round.

"Our candidate for the chairman's position is Hennadii Udovenko," said National Deputy Zvarych, "but we are not going to be nominating Mr. Udovenko unless there is a serious coalition of approximately 200 to 230 deputies who would be willing to support Mr. Udovenko in a package with two other deputies representing two other factions, perhaps one from the left and one from the center, the deputy chairmen."

The current Rukh nominee for the chairmanship is Yurii Kostenko, the former minister of the environment and and Chornobyl affairs, who is widely respected but most likely unable to gather a portion of the leftist vote that he would need to get elected to the chairman's post.

Another candidate who is held in esteem is former Minister of Transportation Valerii Cherep, who was nominated by Social-Democratic Party (United) leader Yevhen Marchuk. However, it also will be difficult for Mr. Cherep to gather sufficient votes from the left, from which any candidate must receive at least minimal support to get the chairmanship because of the high number of votes the left holds.

Other candidates nominated to lead Ukraine's Parliament for the next four years include two independent candidates who nominated themselves, four who were put forth by the Hromada faction, including Ukraine's leading businesswoman Yulia Tymoshenko, and a representative of the National Front political bloc.

Currently only Communist Party Chairman Symonenko has a real chance of getting elected in the first round because his Communist faction is the largest in the Parliament. However, the political left, with less than 200 votes among its three factions, needs to look elsewhere to find the balance of the 226 votes needed to elect Mr. Symonenko, which most political pundits think is unlikely to occur given Mr. Symonenko's radical political positions.

A more likely scenario is that after no candidate is elected in the first round, Mr. Moroz, past chairman and leader of the Socialist Party, will be nominated, at which time the Hromada Party will throw its votes in support of him. Although Mr. Lazarenko's capitalist inclinations diverge sharply from those of Mr. Moroz and his socialist philosophy, the two men share a common dislike for the policies of President Leonid Kuchma and a belief that the powers of the office of the president must be curtailed.

"In the second round I believe that it is possible that Lazarenko will support Moroz," said Vitalii Zhuravskyi, leader of the Christian Democratic Party, who was elected to this Parliament from a single-mandate district.

The most interesting of the political strategies involves four center and center-right parties. On May 14, Rukh, the National Democrats, the Green Party and the Social Democratic Party (United) said they will instruct their members to not cast ballots in the elections unless the Verkhovna Rada votes to change voting procedure so that the presidium of the Parliament is elected as a package.

"More than 150 deputies are proposing a package election, and if they are not heard they will boycott the elections," said National Deputy Pliusch, who is a member of the National Democratic Party.

Rukh faction leader Vyacheslav Chornovil proposed the package vote, in which the chairman and two deputy chairpersons would be elected together, because, he said, he believes that voting in any other way "will not correspond to the alignment of forces in the Parliament and society."

Mr. Chornovil explained that the new Verkhovna Rada leadership must represent the political balance of the Parliament, especially since no party holds an outright majority. "Obviously, it is a normal requirement that the rightists, leftists and centrists should have their representatives among the leadership," said Mr. Chornovil.

Unsaid by Mr. Chornovil is that the alliance pushing for a package vote will also be able to block the election of an unacceptable candidate by not voting and thus pave the way for an electable candidate with a more moderate political viewpoint.

National Deputy Zhuravskyi said that this would not only block the election of Mr. Symonenko, a Communist, but it would give the center and center-right alliance a good look at the degree of unity among leftist politicians.

The Communists and Socialists, although proclaiming common purpose, have argued often over strategy and philosophy. No one is sure just how many Socialists will support Mr. Symonenko's candidacy, even with the backing of Mr. Moroz.

Mr. Zhuravskyi said that even the second round of elections, at which time the more prominently known candidates are expected to be nominated, could be blocked if the package vote is not approved. Such an outcome would then force political leaders of all persuasions into the back room to seek a compromise.

"There could be a deadlock, and then they will have to sit down and find a compromise candidate," said Mr. Zhuravskyi.

If that occurs, according to Mr. Zhuravskyi, it will have shown again just how ineffective the Verkhovna Rada can be. "The process is not for the benefit of the Verkhovna Rada. This game is a waste of time at a time when concrete decisions must be made on the future of the nation," he said.