Verkhovna Rada prepares for new convocation (05/05/02)

Verkhovna Rada prepares for new convocation

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - With little headway made in an effort to form a parliamentary majority, the Verkhovna Rada undertook organizational preparations for the opening session of its new convocation by appointing a Communist as the leader of the steering committee that laid the groundwork for the first session of the Parliament.

The vote to approve Adam Martyniuk, a former second chairman in the last Parliament and the Communist faction's No. 2 man, came unexpectedly after the candidacies of Oleksander Bandurko of the For a United Ukraine Bloc and Viktor Musiaka of the Our Ukraine Bloc received insufficient votes.

Mr. Martyniuk headed the work of the temporary meeting during a week of sessions that were completed on April 30, which set the rules for how elections to the leadership of the legislative body and its committees will take place, the number of committees and how they will be divided up, in addition to a slew of other organizational issues.

The Communists played up their symbolic victory in taking the post, with Mr. Martyniuk stating after his election that, while it was a temporary and minor position, the win was a good example of how his party would remain effective in a Ukrainian Parliament in which for the first time it was not the largest group.

"We will use our strength at the needed moments," said Mr. Martyniuk.

The Communists' ability to take control of the steering committee did not give it undue influence over the process, however, because the group was set up to give all six political organizations that won seats in the new convocation relatively equal power.

That the Communists managed to eke out control over the committee showed the extent to which the two organizations with the most seats in the new Parliament have failed to find common understanding on even the most minor of matters. Dmytro Tabachnyk, a leading figure in the United Ukraine Parliamentary faction (formerly the For a United Ukraine Bloc), which has claimed 165 seats in the new convocation, said he was not optimistic that his faction and the second largest faction, Our Ukraine, would be able to find common understanding to form a large center-right majority. He said he thought that other options were more viable for his faction.

"It would be more effective to form a majority on the basis of the factions of United Ukraine and the Social Democratic Party (United) and try to draw in a good portion of [non-aligned] national deputies, while using Communists when voting on certain vital issues," explained Mr. Tabachnyk, who acknowledged that the only absolute majority that has any potential at present is a temporary and situational one.

The distance separating the two leading factions became larger after Our Ukraine co-signed a political declaration on May 25 which declared that "those in authority" had lost the elections. The document was initiated by the opposition political groups, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and the Socialist Party, and also signed by the Communist Party.

While United Ukraine Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn, who recently resigned as President Leonid Kuchma's chief of staff, quickly shot back, that by agreeing to such a statement Our Ukraine was admitting its own defeat, because many of its members remained "in authority," other members of United Ukraine said the joint declaration was evidence that the four factions were preparing to declare a parliamentary majority.

The debate was carried further when Oleksander Moroz, head of the Socialist Party, retorted on April 26 that, while he would not exclude such a possibility, the declaration from the previous day was merely a statement of common agreement.

"I believe that it would be a positive development in political life, but it is too early in the day to talk about such [a majority]," explained Mr. Moroz.

Most political pundits now believe that a parliamentary majority will not be formed until after the full legislative body meets at the opening session, now scheduled for May 14.

And while the outlook for a United Ukraine-Our Ukraine majority continues to look bleak, National Deputy Roman Zvarych said that if Mr. Lytvyn's bloc accepted a single condition such a coalition would be workable.

"Future cooperation with For a United Ukraine depends on the appointment of Viktor Yushchenko as Ukraine's prime minister," noted Mr. Zvarych on April 30, according to Interfax-Ukraine. Mr. Yushchenko is the leader of the Our Ukraine bloc.

According to the latest Central Election Committee figures, Mr. Yushchenko's faction currently has 120 seats, leaving it a distant second behind United Ukraine, with 165 seats. The Communists have the third largest tally with 66 places. Then comes the Social Democratic Party (United) with 37 assignments at the present, the Tymoshenko Bloc with 26 places and the Socialist Party with 24. Thirteen places, the balance in the 450-seat Verkhovna Rada, are in the hands of national deputies who remain unaligned.

| Home Page |