Party of the Regions blockade halts work of Verkhovna Rada

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine's government slipped back toward chaos as the Party of the Regions issued a fierce ultimatum on June 26, launching a blockade of the Verkhovna Rada until the new coalition government meets its demands.

The opposition demanded separate voting for prime minister and speaker, a secret ballot vote for the Parliament's chairmanship, proportional distribution of committee chairs according to election results and a ban on moonlighting by national deputies.

"Violating parliamentary and constitutional procedures, the so-called Orange coalition is trying to seize power at any price, stepping over the nation's laws and the will of the people," Victor Yanukovych said on June 29, threatening to maintain the blockade even if it led to the Parliament's dismissal.

The Party of the Regions announced the blockade after leaders of the Our Ukraine bloc, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and the Socialist Party of Ukraine signed an agreement on June 22 to form a parliamentary coalition.

The Party of the Regions immediately declared its opposition to the government, declaring that any coalition excluding Ukraine's most popular political force was creating division in the nation and bound for failure.

In announcing its ultimatum, the Party of the Regions expressed vehement opposition to Our Ukraine's proposal to select the nation's prime minister and parliament chairman as part of a package vote, in which the national deputies would have to approve or reject both candidates together.

Ms. Tymoshenko is the coalition's nominee for prime minister, while Our Ukraine had nominated Petro Poroshenko, a wealthy businessman and close confidante of President Viktor Yushchenko.

Mykola Tomenko, who is the Tymoshenko Bloc's likely candidate for vice-chairman of the Parliament, accused the Party of the Regions of opposing the package vote as part of its plan to bribe enough national deputies to vote for Mr. Yanukovych as Rada chair.

The Party of the Regions has created a $250 million slush fund to bribe deputies, Mr. Tomenko alleged, and wants the secret ballot vote to enable enough deputies from the coalition government to vote for Mr. Yanukovych without public exposure.

Among the goals of the blockade, political experts speculated, was to pressure the coalition government to its limit, with the possibility of breaking it before it even began to govern.

If exacerbating division among the coalition forces was among the Regions goals, early successes may have already been apparent.

Already fragile to begin with, the coalition government began to show signs of cracking when Socialist Party Chairman Oleksander Moroz declared June 29 that his party wouldn't support Our Ukraine nominee Petro Poroshenko for the Rada chairmanship.

His announcement was a direct violation of the coalition agreement, which explicitly states that no party or bloc would oppose another's party or bloc's nomination to a post that it has control of.

According to the agreement, Our Ukraine has the right to nominate the Parliament's chairman.

Mr. Moroz cited Mr. Poroshenko's immense business holdings as the reason for opposing his candidacy, referring to one of the Orange Revolution's principles that government should be separate from business.

"In society's consciousness, Petro Poroshenko's candidacy is inseparably tied to big business," he said.

It was the conflict between Ms. Tymoshenko and Mr. Poroshenko that caused President Yushchenko to dismiss the government in September, Mr. Moroz pointed out.

It remains unclear whether Our Ukraine will back the Mr. Poroshenko candidacy for the Rada chairmanship, which political experts said is intended to place a check on Ms. Tymoshenko's influence as the likely prime minister.

Dissension surrounding Mr. Poroshenko's candidacy is also potent within the Our Ukraine bloc. The Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs announced it supports Anatolii Kinakh for Rada chair, while the Christian-Democratic Union Party supports Volodymyr Stretovych.

Mr. Moroz's announcement clearly irked Our Ukraine's leadership.

"Our Ukraine wants to find out from Oleksander Moroz whether it can evaluate his announcement regarding the Verkhovna Rada's chair as his leaving the coalition," said Tetiana Mokridi, Our Ukraine's spokeswoman.

President Yushchenko on June 29 called upon the parliamentary factions to sit at a table and negotiate.

The Party of the Regions, meanwhile, demanded to chair more parliamentary committees than had been designated on the grounds that it had won the most votes in the March elections.

Mr. Yanukovych gave a live interview on Ukrainian television on June 29, stating that the Party of the Regions wants to chair the parliamentary procedures, budget and anti-corruption committees.

He also said thousands of Regions supporters have written and called the party offices expressing their desire to demonstrate against the current government in Kyiv.

The coalition government which hasn't been born yet already has internal problems that induce violations of the Constitution and parliamentary procedure, Mr. Yanukovych charged. "Why create the kind of coalition that will be stillborn?"

In launching the blockade on June 27, Regions national deputies used chairs to jam the Rada's doors for extended periods, blocked its rostrum and shut down its audio system, as well as the electronic voting mechanism.

Eventually, they even blocked the press loge to prevent the coalition leaders from meeting there.

The blockade began the same day that the Rada was supposed to vote to approve judges to Ukraine's Constitutional Court.

Oleksander Turchynov, Ms. Tymoshenko's closest confidante, characterized the Party of the Regions' behavior as criminal.

Ms. Tymoshenko said the blockading deputies turned the session hall into a "garbage dump, practically, with empty bottles, empty beer cans, scattered papers and cigarette butts all over the Rada."

"I want to turn to the Party of the Regions and tell them that this is the Verkhovna Rada, and you need to treat it with the appropriate level of culture, and not turn into a pig sty," Ms. Tymoshenko said.

She speculated that the blockade could last for weeks, but not longer.

"Considering that they've gotten used to eating in fancy restaurants, and now they'll have to eat day and night at the Rada's rostrum, I don't think they'll last very long with this lifestyle," Ms. Tymoshenko said.

Regions deputies even set up a night watch to ensure the party's control of the session hall, creating eight-hour shifts.

Yaroslav Sukhyi joked that he would need "female warmth" to keep him company on his shift, according to the Ukrayinska Pravda website. "Yulia Volodymyrivna [Tymoshenko] promised us babes," Mr. Sukhyi said. "I'm afraid to sleep alone. My legs will freeze."

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, July 2, 2006, No. 27, Vol. LXXIV

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