Lawmakers send Kuchma reforms to Constitutional Court for review (09/14/03)

Lawmakers send Kuchma reforms to Constitutional Court for review

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - In a second attempt at political reform prior to presidential elections next year, President Leonid Kuchma on September 5 submitted to Parliament a new draft law that, if enacted by the Verkhovna Rada, would constitutionally change Ukraine to a parliamentary-presidential political system in which the Verkhovna Rada would elect the head of state.

On September 9 the draft legislation went to the Constitutional Court with a request for expedited review after 254 national deputies had signed on in support of the latest push by Mr. Kuchma to reduce the power of his office and change the relationship between the legislative and executive branches of Ukraine's government before his exit from office.

"Either we implement the reforms and ensure the further stable development of the country, or there will be more fights," explained President Kuchma while traveling in Crimea, reported Interfax-Ukraine.

In referring to "fights," the president was stressing the inability of the Verkhovna Rada to work effectively - both internally as well as with the executive branch, which has too often led to heated political battles and paralysis in the legislative process.

In mid-July the Parliament rejected an initial attempt at political reform, which was first proposed by President Kuchma in an Independence Day address in August 2002, when it failed to find a majority of votes to move it along the path of Constitutional reform. The president withdrew that bill just before the summer recess and then announced the unexpected renewed push for during this year's Ukrainian Independence Day address.

The latest bill was developed in cooperation with the pro-presidential majority in the Parliament and the Socialist and Communist factions of the opposition. While some Socialists have expressed reservations with the initiative to have the president elected by a parliamentary majority, the Communists have been united in their support. Meanwhile, Our Ukraine and the Tymoshenko Bloc, the other two factions that comprise the parliamentary opposition, have continued to reject any efforts to amend the Constitution prior to the presidential elections of October 2004.

The most striking feature of the new bill is the new power alignment it proposes between the president and the Parliament. If approved it would give the legislative branch of government constitutional authority to elect the president beginning in 2006, which would limit the person elected head of state in 2004 to a two-year term.

Beginning in 2006, the process would entail the Verkhovna Rada first developing a majority coalition and then nominating presidential candidates. The candidate receiving two-thirds support from a vote of the entire parliamentary body would become president. The chairman of the Verkhovna Rada would assume the responsibilities of acting president until a president was elected.

The Verkhovna Rada majority also would become responsible for appointing a prime minister - who would ostensibly come from among one of their own - as well as the foreign affairs minister, the defense minister and the head of the Security Service of Ukraine. The new prime minister would appoint the rest of the Cabinet of Ministers. The Verkhovna Rada would retain the authority to ratify all appointments to the Cabinet.

In turn, the president would receive the power to dismiss the Verkhovna Rada should it not be able to form a majority coalition within a month of the scheduled election, elect a sucessor within a month or approve a government within 60 days.

In the most controversial part of the package, the next president's term would run only two years, to 2006, to bring it in line with elections to the Verkhovna Rada and local government bodies. Afterwards, parliamentary terms would be extended to five years to bring them in line with the presidential term of office. The goal is to have all government elections held concurrently.

The constitutional amendments, if enacted, would ban lawmakers from changing factions and would give the legislature the power to remove individual national deputies from office if they should miss more than 100 parliamentary sessions in a year.

While they are proponents of political reform in general, Our Ukraine and the Tymoshenko Bloc have dubbed the reform initiatives proposed by President Kuchma as continued efforts to ensure he has a say in who runs the country after he steps down. The president, on the other hand, has criticized the anti-reform stance of the two opposition blocs, who he said had previously supported a strong parliamentary political system, as opportunism.

Borys Tarasyuk, head of the Rukh Party, one of the main components of Our Ukraine, explained during a radio interview on September 10 that the problem is not in the merits of the proposed new system, but in the reasons behind them.

"I believe that today there is no need to change the Constitution, but to work in accordance with the fundamental law," explained Mr. Tarasyuk, who was foreign affairs minister in the Kuchma administration before being dismissed in 2000.

Mr. Tarasyuk pointed out that the Kuchma administration's ratings are so low - 5 percent to 8 percent in most opinion polls - that it does not have the right to initiate constitutional changes prior to the presidential elections.

The Laboratory for Legislative Initiative, a civic organization that monitors the Verkhovna Rada, and is partially funded by the United States Embassy, said during a press conference on September 9 that the probability that the newest political reform initiative will receive parliamentary approval is low. Ihor Kohut, director of the organization, said the draft legislation was hurriedly written and is poorly constructed.

"This piece of legislation has no possibility of successfully moving through the Verkhovna Rada, and its initiators well understand this," said Mr. Kohut.

Mr. Kohut emphasized that the reason for the legislation is exclusively political: to discredit Viktor Yushchenko, leader of the Our Ukraine bloc, and Yulia Tymoshenko of the eponymous bloc. The two political leaders, and especially Mr. Yushchenko, are well ahead of all the leading possible candidates from the pro-Kuchma camp. The point, according to Mr. Kohut, was to write a piece of legislation that ostensibly looked reformist and pro-European in its restructuring, but which the two opposition leaders would find difficult to support.

"We believe the basic point of the new draft is to disorient society," explained Mr. Kohut.

The draft law is expected to be out of the Constitutional Court before the end of the fall session and to be ready for a formal vote before the Verkhovna Rada in the spring. A two-thirds majority of national deputies will be required for approval.

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