No celebrations yet, as inauguration is on hold (01/16/05)

No celebrations yet, as inauguration is on hold

by Andrew Nynka
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - An official declaration by Ukraine's Central Election Commission named Viktor Yushchenko the newly elected president of Ukraine, but since that announcement on January 10 there have been no mass celebrations here. Kyiv has been strangely quiet and the tent camps that have stood in front of the Presidential Administration Building and on Khreschatyk in the wake of the fraudulent November 21 election remain.

Ukrainians throughout this city say there is nothing to celebrate until Mr. Yushchenko is officially inaugurated in the Verkhovna Rada as independent Ukraine's third president.

"I'm waiting. I'm not going anywhere until Yushchenko is inaugurated. We've seen all this in the past and it was overturned in the courts," said Dimitri Leontiv, 74 a retiree from Chernihiv who has been living in the tent camp on the Khreschatyk since November 22. "We'll celebrate when there is something to celebrate," he added.

Other Ukrainians here echoed Mr. Leontiv's comments, saying they were happy with the CEC's official announcement but hesitant to celebrate until the president-elect was sworn in. While Mr. Yushchenko's orange campaign color is still seen widely throughout the city and impromptu chants of "Yushchenko, Yushchenko" can still be heard every so often, people here appear to have begun settling back into workday routines.

"I'm still here," said Konstantyn Kuzmenko, 51, a member of the tent camp that still stands in front of the Presidential Administration Building. "They'll come. The people will come back out on the streets. But there's nothing to celebrate now," he said.

Waves of appeals and complaints by presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych have set roadblocks to Mr. Yushchenko's ascension to the Ukrainian presidency (see story on page 1). No official date has been set for Mr. Yushchenko's inauguration, though both the Ukrainian Parliament and members of the Yushchenko team have already begun preparing for the event.

"It'll be flashy and interesting, with twists," Oleksander Zinchenko, Mr. Yushchenko's campaign manager, promised during a press conference in Kyiv on January 10. He also said that Mr. Yushchenko's team was working on the timing of the inauguration, as there was concern that certain dates could conflict with presidential inaugurations in other countries.

A number of countries, including the United States, are expected to send large delegations - a sign of confidence in Mr. Yushchenko's presidency and hope that he will follow through on campaign pledges to move the country closer to Europe.

Markian Lubkivskyi, a spokesman for Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on January 11 that Ukraine officially invited a number of leaders of foreign states and international organizations to attend the ceremony, noting that a precise guest list would be released "in the future."

During a U.S. Department of State press briefing in Washington, Spokesman Richard Boucher was asked if Secretary of State Colin Powell intended to be at Mr. Yushchenko's inauguration.

"I don't want to speculate at this point. We'll have to see what

happens in Ukraine. It's certainly been a major - a matter of great importance to the secretary and to the president to see that the Ukrainian people got an opportunity for a fair and free election, that they got an opportunity to decide on their leaders. And I'm sure the United States in whatever appropriate fashion will continue to support a government that's brought to power by a free vote of the Ukrainian people," Mr. Boucher said.

Mr. Lubkivskyi also noted that "an important element of the inauguration will be an address by the president to the Ukrainian people." While the official inauguration and Mr. Yushchenko's swearing in will take place in the Parliament, his camp has also said Mr. Yushchenko will have a symbolic inauguration and swearing in event on Independence Square, which has become symbolic to Ukrainians as the epicenter of the "Orange Revolution."

Earlier in the week, leading deputies in the Verkhovna Rada gathered on January 10 to discuss the possibility of extending the current session of Parliament in connection with the inauguration. The meeting was led by Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn and included the heads of political parties and factions.

The proposal to extend the current session of Parliament, possibly until January 19 or 20, was made by Mr. Lytvyn and was supported by the participants of the meeting. At press time, no decision had been made on the extension. Parliament is scheduled to conclude its current session on January 14.

Before President-elect Yushchenko and a new Ukrainian government can officially take office and begin working, the Verkhovna Rada will need to convene two separate meetings, Mr. Lytvyn said.

The first session of Parliament would be held in connection with the official inauguration and would give deputies the opportunity to clarify the procedures and rules surrounding Mr. Yushchenko's inauguration. A second session would approve Mr. Yushchenko's candidate for the post of prime minister, who can then begin forming a government in consultation with parliamentary factions and political parties.

A candidate for the post of prime minister would need to pass the scrutiny of the Verkhovna Rada, where a simple majority of the 450 national deputies would need to approve Mr. Yushchenko's nomination.

Mr. Lytvyn said on January 10 that he believed a new majority was forming in the Parliament, though he declined to specify which political parties or factions make up the group.

The Parliament chairman said further that such a majority would approve Mr. Yushchenko's candidate for the post of prime minister no later than the week after the inauguration. "I think the new president will have such a vote of trust, that the Verkhovna Rada will support the candidate he nominates, and with at least 250 votes," Mr. Lytvyn said.

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