REACTION: Mourning the lost vote (06/30/02)

REACTION: Mourning the lost vote

by Jan Maksymiuk
RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine Report

Representatives of the four "non-presidential" parliamentary caucuses - Our Ukraine, the Communist Party, the Socialist Party and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc - addressed the Verkhovna Rada on May 29 in connection with the previous day's vote on the parliamentary leadership. Below are translations of excerpts of their speeches as transcribed by the Ukrainska Pravda website:

Oleksander Moroz (Socialist Party):

"On May 28, the ruling regime concluded yet another campaign toward usurping power. Contrary to the people's will, the parliamentary leadership was filled with representatives of the forces that were supported by less than one-fifth of the citizens. The victory was wrenched from the people by way of blackmail, threats, bribery and betrayal. Now the picture of the authorities has been completed - the branches of power are headed by people with a guilty conscience.

"The Socialist Party caucus announces it is switching over to parliamentary opposition to the majority that was formed the previous day and appeals for cooperation to representatives of other [like-minded] caucuses."

Viktor Yushchenko (Our Ukraine):

"For ethical considerations, I must begin this address by hailing the election of the [parliamentary] presidium and congratulating the authorities, the For a United Ukraine [in original: Za YedU - the acronym of For a United Ukraine] bloc and the Social Democratic Party caucus on such resolute destruction of the position, honor and dignity of some deputies. Indeed, this was your victory. My heart is breaking to see what is going on. I am convinced that millions of Ukrainians have suffered heartache after what happened in this hall yesterday.

"Yesterday the country was the loser. Yesterday morality was the loser. Yesterday democracy was the loser.

"On May 28, the appointment of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada leadership took place. The procedure for the election of speaker was replaced by a forcible imposition of the three [Lytvyn, Vasyliev, Zinchenko]. The authorities managed to push their candidates into the leadership of the legislative body with pressure, blackmail, bribery and threats.

"The administrative resources, which were cynically used in the elections campaign, were brutally applied in the parliamentary hall as well. In this way, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada has transformed itself into a subsection of the presidential administration. Yesterday, the parliamentary leadership was filled with people who represent the outsiders of the election campaign and marginal political forces.

"An assessment of these [forces] - despite ferocious pressure and total disinformation in the state-controlled media - was already provided by voters in March 2002. But yesterday's developments demonstrated one more time that the authorities in Ukraine do not take into consideration the citizens' choice.

"Today, I apologize to those 6,188,000 voters for Our Ukraine's failure to defend democracy. I apologize for the fact that seven people's deputies who were elected to the Parliament from the Our Ukraine list or thanks to support from our bloc in single-mandate constituencies, have proved to be unworthy of their voters. Yesterday, seven people betrayed their voters, betrayed all of us. Our Ukraine voted to expel them from the parliamentary caucus. We have cleared our ranks of unsteady people who failed to pass their first political test."

Serhiy Hmyria (Communist Party):

"On behalf of the entire caucus, I propose [to hold] a minute of silence [to mark the demise of] democracy in Ukraine, and to display here a black-draped copy of the Constitution until constitutional order has been restored."

Yulia Tymoshenko (Yulia Tymo-shenko Bloc):

"This is a total failure, because yesterday Ukraine got a three-in-one leadership: Kuchma the president, Kuchma the prime minister, Kuchma the Verkhovna Rada chairman. Therefore, Kuchma and his entourage now bears full responsibility for everything taking place in Ukraine - it's impossible to call [the authorities] a team.

"The four [Our Ukraine, the Communist Party, the Socialist Party, and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc] should also bear some of the blame - we had a chance over a span of two weeks, we should admit this. If we continue to blame the authorities for all, we will be [ridiculous]. We should shoulder our part of responsibility - for our squabbles, quarrels, disagreement, for our two-faced politics when we tried to act on several fronts. [Editor's note: This apparently is an allusion to attempts by Our Ukraine and the Communist Party to strike a deal on the election of the parliamentary leadership with United Ukraine.]

"Did we not know whom we had on our [election] lists? Did we not know what methods were used by the authorities? Did we not know how they would be tormenting deputies? We did know all this! Therefore, we also bear our part of the blame."

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