KYIV – President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky will get to hold the “bulava,” or mace – a Kozak symbol of authority – on May 20 when the Verkhovna Rada hosts his inauguration as post-Soviet Ukraine’s sixth president.
An overwhelming majority of 315 national deputies voted on May 16 for the resolution setting the date, which would allow the newly inaugurated president to dissolve the Parliament and call for snap elections. The president-elect has not explicitly stated whether he will exercise that right.
Mr. Zelensky and his team of advisers have indicated that they want to swiftly pass laws that clearly outline procedures for presidential impeachment, eliminate immunity from prosecution for lawmakers and other officials, as well as appoint and nominate personnel in the defense and foreign ministries, as well as law enforcement – namely, the chief prosecutor.
Mr. Zelensky “hopes that lawmakers will continue adopting laws that are necessary for the country sooner than we saw in setting the inauguration date,” his press service said on the Telegram cellphone application.
Several resolutions were proposed with different dates and inauguration locales, including Kyiv’s Olympic Stadium, where soccer games and concerts are held and where the future commander-in-chief debated outgoing President Petro Poroshenko two days before the April 21 runoff of the presidential election. Instead, in keeping with tradition, the Verkhovna Rada will host Mr. Zelensky’s swearing-in ceremony.
The 41-year-old former comedian and actor has been a regular feature on television since 2003 and most recently played a history teacher-turned-accidental president in three sitcom seasons of “Servant of the People.” An eponymous political party is already registered.
The Servant of the People party is currently the favored political force in the upcoming parliamentary elections, according to a national public opinion poll of more than 2,000 respondents that was conducted in April by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. It has over 26 percent support among decided voters, ahead of the pro-Russian Opposition Platform-For Life party (16 percent), Solidarity Petro Poroshenko Bloc (14 percent) and Batkivshchyna party headed by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (6 percent).
If Mr. Zelensky chooses to dissolve Parliament, pre-term elections could be held as soon as late July; otherwise, they are scheduled for October 27.
Grey cardinal worries
The president-elect’s close ties to billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky remain a concern since Mr. Zelensky’s comedy shows have appeared on the oligarch’s 1+1 television channel for at least seven years. Both have maintained that their relations are strictly professional.
Mr. Kolomoisky returned from self-imposed exile in Switzerland and Israel on May 16 after being outside of Ukraine since June 2017; he addressed a conference in Kyiv organized by Concorde Capital that same day. His longtime business partner, Hennadiy Boholyubov, who favors foreign residence in London, also returned to Ukraine.
Both were shareholders in Ukraine’s largest private lender, PrivatBank, which the central bank took under receivership and nationalized after New York corporate investigator Kroll found it had at least a $5.5 billion hole on the balance sheet in 2016.
So far, Mr. Kolomoisky has won lower and upper court cases in Ukraine to deem the nationalization of PrivatBank illegal. He also has demanded $2.2 billion in compensation on lost loans.
The magnate’s personal lawyer, Andriy Bohdan, has also advised Mr. Zelensky, often speaks on his behalf and was at his side during the first round of the presidential election and the runoff as witnessed by The Ukrainian Weekly. Local media report that he could be appointed to head Mr. Zelensky’s presidential office.
Inheritance, challenges
Unlike his predecessor, Mr. Zelensky will inherit an economy that has been growing at 2-3 percent yearly and with inflation easing to below 10 percent. When Mr. Poroshenko assumed the presidency five years ago, he had to deal with a country on the verge of bankruptcy, inflation of 49 percent and a range of other economic issues. Since then, opportunities for corruption have been significantly reduced, saving the country $6 billion, according to economists. Concerns remain in the defense public procurement sector and regarding abuse of public office. The weakest link to combating graft still is a judiciary that isn’t sufficiently staffed and is open to political influence. The Security Service of Ukraine still has financial crime investigative powers, whereas groups like the Reanimation Package of Reforms, a coalition of more than 85 non-profits, says it should be transformed strictly to a counterintelligence and anti-terrorist agency.
A hot war caused by Russia in the two easternmost regions of Ukraine, Luhansk and Donetsk, continues, with more than 13,000 people killed since April 2014. Ukraine’s gas transit contract with Russia expires at the end of the year, and Moscow’s Nord Stream II pipeline project that completely bypasses Ukraine is set to go online around the same time.
On the diplomatic front, the incoming president will have to keep to consistent messaging in order to maintain Western sanctions against Russia for its warmongering, in addition to continuing work aimed at recovering state-owned assets and obtaining reparations for damaged or lost assets in the Crimea and the Donbas.