Kuchma and Rada spar over site of inauguration (11/28/99)

Kuchma and Rada spar over site of inauguration

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Continuing the intransigence that has marked their stormy relations, a brouhaha has emerged between President Leonid Kuchma and Verkhovna Rada leaders over where the president should be inaugurated.

This time the spat involves the Verkhovna Rada's refusal to agree to plans proposed by Mr. Kuchma to move the site of the presidential inauguration from the Parliament Session Hall, where it has been held since Ukraine became independent in 1991.

President Kuchma, who decisively beat his opponent, Petro Symonenko, leader of the Communist faction in the Ukrainian Parliament, in a November 14 election run-off, has insisted that his inauguration, now scheduled for November 30, should be held at the Ukraina Palace of Culture, a luxurious and spacious concert hall located in the center of the capital.

After a week of public debate and disagreement, President Kuchma said on November 22 that he would go against a parliamentary resolution and would issue a presidential decree the next day to assign the ceremony to the Ukraina Palace.

"I am not taking the oath before the Verkhovna Rada, I am taking it before the Ukrainian people," said a defiant Mr. Kuchma on Ukrainian television on November 22. The president underscored that the Constitution of Ukraine does not require the head of state to swear his oath to the parliamentarians.

The president's assertion is backed up by the words of the basic law of Ukraine, which states only that "the newly elected president of Ukraine shall assume his post not later than 30 days after the official announcement of the elections, from the moment he swears an oath to the people during a solemn meeting of the Verkhovna Rada."

The fractiousness that has characterized relations between the two branches of government for years began anew when the Verkhovna Rada leadership, led by Chairman Oleksander Tkachenko, voted on November 16 against a formal request from the executive branch to change the site of the inauguration. Mr. Tkachenko, who supported Mr. Kuchma's opponent in the elections, said tradition dictates that the president-elect take the oath of office in the Parliament chamber.

But a day later President Kuchma seemed to have convinced the Verkhovna Rada leadership that its building does not have the facilities to accommodate the 3,000 or so international diplomats and guests that have been invited, and that there is no specific requirement in the Constitution that the swearing-in take place in the Parliament chamber. On November 17 the president's press service announced that the two sides had agreed to move the date of the ceremony from November 26, a day when the national deputies are scheduled to work in their constituencies, to November 30, and to hold it at the president's chosen venue.

But two days after that, the full parliamentary body rejected the president's proposal by a vote of 285 to 8.

Viktor Medvedchuk, second vice-chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, said that for the most part, the national deputies again had split along ideological lines, with the Communist, Socialist and Peasants' party factions voting against the president's choice, along with unexpected support from the center-right Rukh faction led by National Deputy Yurii Kostenko. Mr. Medvedchuk said he personally disagreed with the vote.

"There is no objective basis for the Verkhovna Rada to intrude in the process," explained Mr. Medvedchuk.

Mykhailo Syrota, a leading national deputy who heads the Labor-Ukraine faction, which supported the move to the Kyiv concert hall, said that a ceremony in the Parliament chamber could pose the risk of motions from the floor and demonstrations by the national deputies aligned against the re-elected president aimed to disrupt the proceedings.

The political hubbub comes after Mr. Kuchma had said that with the political mandate of his landslide victory he hoped and expected that cooperation between the two combating branches of power would increase. However, he has also reasserted that he would not preclude dismissing the Parliament if it continues to block his bills and paralyze government.

He has also proposed a national referendum to change the Constitution to allow for a bicameral national legislature, a move that many national deputies consider an attempt to develop a separate parliamentary chamber controlled by the president. They argue such a move usurps their authority.

The current body, a conglomeration of 15 political groupings - the largest of which is the Communist faction and none of which holds a majority of votes - has been characterized by bickering and paralysis since it was elected in March 1998.

The president has proposed that if factions of the center and center-right organize a majority coalition, he will grant them the ability to form a government and appoint a prime minister.

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