Yuschenko remains as caretaker only (05/06/01)

Yuschenko remains as caretaker only

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - While aides of Viktor Yuschenko were maintaining on May 3 that the ousted head of government and his Cabinet would stay on for another 60 days not as a temporary government but in its full capacity, that did not change the fact that the reformist prime minister and his team would function only as a caretaker government with little authority while a replacement is sought.

It also meant that intensive political wheeling and dealing will have to take place in the near future to find a candidate and a majority of lawmakers that will support that candidate if Ukraine is to avoid another major political crisis around the end of June.

Two days after the Verkhovna Rada's April 26 vote of 263-69 that ousted the ninth Ukrainian government in 10 years - the first time ever by a parliamentary vote of no confidence - President Leonid Kuchma signed the decree that terminated its mandate.

While the president had expressed his displeasure with the outcome of the vote immediately after he was informed of it, it seemed more to be with the instability another change of government will bring Ukraine rather than with the fall of the first real reformist government.

"I cannot welcome this decision as the head of state, but what has happened has happened," said Mr. Kuchma, who was in the Chornobyl-area town of Slavutych for 15th anniversary commemorations rather than in the Verkhovna Rada session hall on the day of the vote. The president blamed the decision on a lack of political dialogue and cooperation between the government and the Parliament.

In the same executive order dismissing the government, President Kuchma decreed that the Cabinet of Ministers should continue to work for another 60 days as outlined in the Constitution. The president and the self-described "new parliamentary majority" of the Labor Ukraine, Social Democratic and Democratic Union factions now must agree on a candidate who might obtain the 226 votes needed to be approved by the Parliament. The president formally nominates the prime minister.

The Communist faction, which joined the three factions controlled by business magnates in the no confidence vote against the Yuschenko government, has made it clear it will not support any nominee offered by the oligarchs and will propose its own.

Mr. Kuchma, who had refused to give his unconditional backing for Mr. Yuschenko in public statements in the days leading up to the vote, was much more supportive of the prime minister's 16 months of work during a meeting with him, his Cabinet and other state officials a day after the government's fate had been sealed. At that meeting Mr. Kuchma officially accepted the resignation of the Cabinet.

There he presented Mr. Yuschenko with a rare Ostroh Bible and gave each of the ministers a gold watch, and thanked them for their work. He said the Yuschenko government "had achieved positive results."

"It is vitally important today to develop and deepen them," said Mr. Kuchma, who explained he would continue to push for integration into Europe and development of cooperation with Ukraine's main strategic partners, which he named as the United States, the European Union, Russia and Poland.

While the president said he needed to consult with parliamentary factions, political parties and public figures before making a nomination, Mr. Yuschenko told the press he believed a nomination would be put forth within four to five days.

There had been some confusion in the press recently as to what the technical designation of Mr. Yuschenko's next 60 days should be and whether he had in fact reneged on a promise not to head a temporary government by agreeing to stay for another 60 days. According to a press spokesman in the prime minister's office, from the outset Mr. Yuschenko had no intention of avoiding a Constitutional requirement that an ousted government must remain for 60 days or until a replacement Cabinet is in place.

What the prime minister continues to underscore is that he would not accept a designation of acting prime minister to continue in that post once his 60 days are up if the Parliament fails to approve a replacement.

And that today is a very real possibility.

Voting on April 26, while showing that the business magnates can cooperate with Communists on very specific matters, made it clear that such a coalition could never bond permanently.

The same day the Communists voted to bring down the government, they voted for a resolution to begin impeachment proceedings against President Kuchma - a person the oligarchs' factions support almost without question. Although the vote ultimately failed, it showed that the Communists cannot be called a component of what is being referred to as a "new majority" in the Verkhovna Rada. Given the numbers in the Communist faction, the vote effectively dismissed the notion that such a majority even exists.

The Communists further showed they were not about to cooperate with the business oligarchs when they announced that they would nominate up to four of their own candidates for the vacant post of prime minister. On April 27 Communist leader Petro Symonenko said his party would support only the political program they will develop in negotiations on a new prime minister for the country.

"Our only condition is that the government must be formed under the program we will offer, the program of Ukraine's way out of crisis," explained Mr. Symonenko.

Other potential candidates that will be considered by the president include Serhii Tyhypko, who was a vice prime minister in the Pustovoitenko government and is a founder and leading figure in the Labor Ukraine Party, a faction that today is second in numbers only to the Communists; First Vice-Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Viktor Medvedchuk, leader of the Social Democratic Party (United), who is considered by some to be the most powerful person in Ukraine today after the president, as well as the richest, along with his business partner Hryhorii Surkis; and Mykola Azarov, chairman of the State Tax Administration and a loyal Kuchma supporter who recently organized his own political party, the Labor Party.

Given an outside chance are Volodymyr Horbulin, the former secretary of the National Security and Defense Council and a trusted presidential aide, and Kyiv Mayor Oleksander Omelchenko.

While Mr. Yuschenko has not expressed support for any person to replace him, he has reasserted what he said during his final appearance in the Verkhovna Rada: he will not leave politics. He told Interfax-Ukraine after his dismissal that he would prepare to run for a seat in the Verkhovna Rada in next year's spring elections. He already has met with representatives of the six political parties that supported his work in the Verkhovna Rada vote and has indicated that he would be willing to lead a coalition of the six organizations.

On April 27 Mr. Yuschenko said he would like to develop a broad coalition of reformist forces in Ukraine, while dismissing any possibility that he might lead one of the several oppositionist civic organizations. He said he would not head any organization that opposes the president or is calling for his resignation.

His spokeswoman, Natalia Zarudna, said the prime minister would not join "the forces that are for destruction - that is, the destruction of somebody."

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