Turning the pages back... June 4, 1996 (06/05/05)

Turning the pages back...

June 4, 1996

After months of political stalemate, a majority of Ukraine's Parliament on June 4, 1996, finally endorsed the country's draft Constitution in its first reading. But government officials warned that a national referendum was possible because it was doubtful that the document will muster enough votes to ensure a constitutional majority - 301 votes - in the current legislature.

By a 258-101 margin, lawmakers in Parliament voted to approve the draft Constitution in its first reading. They were scheduled to review additions and revisions to the document in a second reading on June 19.

Right-wing and centrist lawmakers welcomed the vote. "This is a major step in the life of the Ukrainian state," said Volodymyr Stretovych, chairman of the Parliament's Committee for Legal Policy and Legal-Judicial Reform. For months, President Leonid Kuchma had tried to push through a draft Constitution, but had run into opposition from left-wing lawmakers who demanded a Constitution reminiscent of the Communist era that would give collective rights precedence over those of the individual and guarantee housing, work and social welfare.

Under the approved draft, however, individual rights would become the centerpiece of Ukraine's fundamental law. The draft guaranteed human rights and freedom of speech, religion and language. For the first time in nearly eight decades, citizens would also have the right to private land ownership. And although the document used language similar to the Ukrainian SSR's 1978 Constitution by stating that citizens have the right to work, housing and social welfare, observers questioned how enforceable these rights were in post-Soviet Ukraine.

Speaking at a press conference, Dmytro Tabachnyk, head of the presidential administration, welcomed the result of the previous day's vote, but warned that the vote also showed that left-wing lawmakers had enough votes to block passage of the draft Constitution in its second reading. If the document failed to receive the necessary votes, it would be taken directly to the citizens of Ukraine for endorsement, Mr. Tabachnyk suggested. Mr. Kuchma had the right to call a plebiscite under the constitutional agreement entered into by the president and Parliament in June 1995. The accord, which was, in effect, a petit constitution, was to remain in effect until Ukraine adopted a new Constitution.

Source: "Ukraine's Parliament endorses draft Constitution in first reading," by Natalia A. Feduschak, The Ukrainian Weekly, June 9, 1996, Vol. LXIV, No. 23.

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