Translated material
Frost convenes the Rada
The Party of Regions is preparing for elections
The extraordinary session of the Ukrainian parliament, scheduled by Speaker Alexander Moroz for August 7-10, is unlikely to change the balance of power on the eve of the early parliamentary elections. The core of the ruling parliamentary coalition - the Party of Regions - still intends to participate in the election campaign. And she is unlikely to agree to the cancellation of the elections scheduled for September 30. As the leader of the Party of Regions, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, said yesterday, his party has not yet made a final decision on participation in the extraordinary session of the Rada. “There must be arguments as to how much the country needs it,” he said.Currently, the parliament of the fifth convocation, dissolved by presidential decree, is on recess until September 4. On July 27, Speaker Moroz issued an order to convene the session on July 31, but then, under pressure from Yanukovych, postponed it to August 7-10. And today or tomorrow, in accordance with the law, the Central Election Commission must announce the start of the election campaign for early elections to the Rada.
The head of the Socialist Party of Ukraine, Alexander Moroz, has no chance of winning early elections. He is looking for a pretext to cancel them, accusing the president of preparing large-scale falsifications in order to “seize all power in the country.” The Party of Regions, which is part of the ruling coalition along with the Socialist Party, is forced to play along with former comrades so as not to get a competitor in early elections. As Viktor Yanukovych said the other day, the Party of Regions reserves the right “if necessary, to take part in an extraordinary meeting of parliament.”
However, on August 7-10, the Verkhovna Rada plans to discuss not the cancellation of early elections, as Moroz had previously insisted on, but only social benefits for the population and legal support for elections. At the same time, the socialists hope to increase the opposition to 300 people, which would make it possible to abandon early elections to the Rada, making its meetings legitimate.
Yesterday, during a visit to the Donetsk region, Viktor Yanukovych said that his government “intends to create conditions under which it will become impossible to annul the results of early elections to the Verkhovna Rada. The point is to ensure that there are no legal grounds to cancel the results, so as not to spend extra money. The voting results must be recorded so that the elections cannot be challenged in the courts.” This is exactly what the prime minister said was discussed during his meeting with Alexander Moroz. The head of government once again stated that there were no grounds for holding early elections ordered by the president, adding: “The aggravation of the political confrontation interferes with the economic development of the state and the lives of our citizens. We had no choice.”
“The fate of the early elections will be decided before August 2,” political scientist Andrei Ermolaev, close to the Party of Regions, told Vremya Novostey. “The Central Election Commission must decide on the start of the election campaign.” In his opinion, if this is done, “the question of canceling the parliamentary session will arise.” At the same time, “the convening of an extraordinary session of parliament does not cancel the campaign for early elections on September 30, especially if “the Central Election Commission confirms the authority to cancel the party lists of opposition parties that have left the parliament - the presidential bloc “Our Ukraine” and the “Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc” , - says Mr. Ermolaev. Let us recall that it was the resignation of members of the opposition factions that became the legal basis for the dissolution of parliament. The fate of early elections depends on the final behind-the-scenes agreements between the prime minister and the president, Ukrainian experts state.