Verkhovna Rada paralyzed over election of chairman (06/28/98)

Verkhovna Rada paralyzed over election of chairman

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada continues to be paralyzed over the election of a chairman to lead it.

After seven weeks and 13 attempts, the newly elected national deputies still have not reached consensus.

Four more rounds of nominations took place in the last week, after Petro Symonenko, leader of the Communist faction, came within five votes of claiming the chairmanship on June 18. No one has come close since.

Among the tried and failed pretenders of the last week were Oleksander Tkachenko, the first vice-chair of the previous Parliament, who could muster only 148 votes in the 10th round; and Ivan Pliushch, the Verkhovna Rada's first chairman, who received 205 votes in the 11th round, 19 short of the 226 needed for a majority in the 450-member Parliament.

A 12th round of nominations was never followed by voting because before the national deputies could get to that stage all seven nominees had withdrawn their candidacies.

In round 13 Mr. Pliushch again was nominated; he was pitted against his successor, Oleksander Moroz, chairman of the last Parliament. However, they both withdrew their nominations as the political gamesmanship continued. Volodymyr Semynozhenko of the National Democratic faction was left as the sole candidate, but he received only 201 votes.

The paralysis in the Parliament is the result of a split among the political parties along ideological lines. Neither side has yet shown a desire to work out a compromise that would allow for the election of a chairman. A center bloc of four factions - Rukh, the National Democrats, the Social Democrats (United) and the Greens - has stood firm for electing the chairman as a package with his two vice-chairs.

The leftist bloc of Communists, Socialists and Agrarians has insisted that the chairmanship must go to one of their own, and has refused to consider electing the presidium as a package.