| The Rada curtailed the power of the president and purged the Central Election Commission Yesterday, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine voted on a “package” of amendments to the constitution and the law on presidential elections, possibly putting an end to the three-week confrontation between the government and the opposition. Leonid Kuchma personally arrived at the Rada and signed documents “on the spot,” as demanded by the opposition that did not trust him. In addition, the president, at the request of the opposition, fired Prosecutor General Gennady Vasilyev, who is considered a person of the Donetsk influence group.
“There should be no winners and losers if Ukraine wins. I would like to add that there were no humiliated people either,” the president said in the Rada. In Ukraine, “there was always enough intelligence and will to find the only correct solution, which was supported first by parliament and then by society.” The “package” vote that followed the president’s speech was supported by a record number of votes—402. Some deputies from the government and the opposition shouted “victory!” They rushed to fraternize.
The constitutional amendments, which come into force on September 1, 2005, give a significant part of presidential powers to parliament and the government, where traditionally there are many supporters of Leonid Kuchma. In particular, the parliamentary majority receives the right to appoint a prime minister, whose weight will be no less, and perhaps even greater, than that of the president. For example, presidential acts will not come into force without the signature of the head of government. The president will be able to overturn the decision of the cabinet of ministers only by enlisting the support of the constitutional court. The president retains the appointment of heads of regional administrations. In addition, the president approves the ministers of defense, foreign affairs, heads of the National Bank and the security service, but with the consent of the Rada. The remaining government officials are elected by parliament and the prime minister. The President received the right to dissolve the Rada if a parliamentary majority is not found there within a month after the election or if meetings do not begin, and also if a government is not formed within two months. The powers of parliament will be extended from four to five years, and elections will be held exclusively on party lists. In case of early termination of the powers of the President, his duties will be temporarily performed by the Speaker.
The opposition considers the change in electoral legislation a victory. In particular, repeat voting in the second round of elections on December 26 was legalized (the Supreme Court decision of December 3 alone was not enough for this). Closed loophole for multiple absentee ballot voting. Now, when issuing them, a mark will be placed in the passport column “special features” in order to exclude a “second visit”. The number of absentee ballots has been reduced from 4 to 0.5%.
In addition, the Rada changed the composition of the Central Election Commission, which it had previously expressed no confidence in. The former head of the Central Election Commission Sergei Kivalov and lawyer Elena Lukash, who represented the interests of the single candidate from the government, Viktor Yanukovych, were given a ride by the Rada. Since both candidates were nominated by the Regions of Ukraine faction, controlled by Yanukovych, the prime minister and one of the two contenders for the presidential post was thus left without representatives in the Central Election Commission.
Speaker Vladimir Lytvyn and the first Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk called the “package” vote of the Rada an “act of consolidation” of society: “Conflicts, when everyone was broken over the knee, ended in reconciliation.” “This is a victory for everyone without exception,” so “now everyone is bingeing on ‘Ukraine is not dead yet,’” Kravchuk promised. “Only the adoption of the constitution in 1996 is equal to yesterday’s vote in terms of political weight,” says Bohdan Gubsky, a member of the United Ukraine presidential faction. At the same time, changes to the election law “will make it possible to vote on December 26 freely.”
Assessments in the opposition camp are quite contradictory. Socialist Yuriy Lutsenko called the Rada’s decision a “great holiday for the people” and a “victory for democracy.” “Yushchenko’s team has proven that it is fighting for democracy and for compromise between different political forces,” and not for increasing power, said Yushchenko’s confidant, Rada deputy Nikolai Tomenko. But Yulia Tymoshenko promised to protest the constitutional amendments through the courts.
“The opposition is playing a smart game - it keeps the authorities in suspense by creating a contrast between the “evil” (Tymoshenko) and the “good” (Yushchenko) investigator. In fact, the Rada’s decision is beneficial to the opposition,” Vadim Karasev, head of the Ukrainian Institute of Global Studies, told Vremya Novostey. - If the crisis had dragged on, Yushchenko would have faced the prospect of disrupting the December 26 elections, which would have benefited only the president. The people would eventually be tired of the situation being dragged out, as well as of the individuals “guilty” of this, including Yushchenko himself.”
In fact, the next president will only have nine months of broad presidential powers. “Yushchenko voluntarily refused a huge prize. The new president will not have a majority in the Rada, because its composition was formed by the old government,” Ukrainian political scientist Viktor Nebozhenko told us. - Therefore, as a result of the constitutional reform, Leonid Kuchma, the head of his administration Viktor Medvedchuk and Speaker Lytvyn won, who received extensive room for maneuver. I think Yushchenko will not be able to fulfill his promises either to society or to his comrades-in-arms.”
Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who was still on leave, denied rumors of disagreements with Kuchma, emphasizing that the president has always supported him. “Our relationship with him has always been open and honest. They remain so now,” Yanukovych told reporters. On the other hand, the Prime Minister said that the decision taken yesterday The decision on the composition of the Central Election Commission demonstrated that “lawlessness continues” in the country. “As a candidate, I am deprived of representatives in the Central Election Commission, which raises doubts about the integrity of the elections,” Yanukovych said.
Meanwhile, the opposition is anticipating the fruits of their victory. Deputy Igor Ostash predicts that President Kuchma, after yesterday’s meeting with the leaders of the Yushchenko faction “Our Ukraine,” will satisfy the long-standing demand of the opposition and dismiss the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Nikolai Belokon, and tomorrow the head of the administration of the Sumy region, Vladimir Shcherban, may be removed from office.
Yesterday, the first foreign responses to the decisions of the Verkhovna Rada appeared. EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana congratulated “all parties” in Ukraine and the country’s president. Solana expressed the view that these decisions will “open the way for a free and fair re-vote” in the second round of the presidential election on December 26. “The fact that decisions were taken by such a convincing majority is an encouraging signal for the reconciliation process in the country...,” said the EU High Representative.
Another international mediator who helped Ukrainian leaders seek a compromise, Speaker of the Russian Duma Boris Gryzlov, assesses yesterday's events in exactly the opposite way. Speaking yesterday in the Kazakh capital Astana, where he arrived on a visit, Mr. Gryzlov said that “the entire post-election process in Ukraine is taking place outside the legal framework.” “The formulation was invented that, based on political expediency, some decisions are made,” said the speaker of the Duma. He sharply criticized the decisions of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, which, according to him, “by law did not have the right to make assessments of the elections and, moreover, did not have the right to call a re-vote for the second round.” True, Gryzlov’s assessments of the Ukrainian compromise differ from President Putin’s assessments, which he gave two days ago to the results of a by no means more legitimate compromise between the parties in the Abkhaz crisis. Putin is known to have welcomed the agreements reached in Sukhumi, calling them evidence of the wisdom of opponents who acted in the interests of their people.
Poisoning without evidence is like murder without a dead person
Yesterday, Viennese doctor Nikolai Korpan said that he could neither confirm nor exclude suspicions of poisoning of the leader of the Ukrainian opposition Viktor Yushchenko, although a few hours earlier the same Austrian doctor of Ukrainian origin, who supervised the treatment of Mr. Yushchenko in the Vienna clinic "Rudolfinerhaus" in the second ten days of September ", said in a telephone interview with the British newspaper The Times that during the presidential campaign in Ukraine they tried to poison his patient.
Yesterday, the director of the Rudolfinerhaus clinic, Professor Michael Zimpfer, took the floor. In an interview with German television channel N-24, he noted that the cause of Mr. Yushchenko's recent illness remains unclear and "there is still no evidence of poison." According to the professor, “poisoning without evidence is the same as murder without a dead person.”
The parliamentary commission investigating the incident with Viktor Yushchenko should publish the results of its work after the completion of the presidential elections in Ukraine. And the President of the Austrian Chamber of Physicians, Rainer Brettenthaler, yesterday called on his colleagues to observe medical confidentiality in everything related to the Yushchenko case.
Alexander SAMOKHOTKIN Svetlana STEPANENKO, Kyiv, Arkady DUBNOV |
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