Translated material
Four parties will enter the Rada
- I think that elections will most likely take place. The President has long gone beyond the constitutional framework, trying to turn the political situation in his favor. The basis for holding elections is not the law he violated, but agreements between politicians. In these conditions it is difficult to predict anything.
-- Recently, the court prohibited the Central Election Commission from replenishing the composition of parliament at the expense of the presidential bloc “Our Ukraine”, whose deputies resigned. Previously, the speaker argued that the Rada is legitimate as long as the legal opportunity to replenish its membership remains. Has the court thus removed the last obstacle to announcing early elections?
- The court decision says one thing - Yushchenko was preparing in advance for the dissolution of parliament in order to rule in the future with the same amount of powers as Kuchma. To ensure court decisions in his favor, the president shook up the entire judicial system, installing judges loyal to him in key positions. So many court decisions are a priori illegitimate. The parliamentary coalition has the opportunity to appeal to the courts of appeal and cassation to challenge questionable court decisions.
— Will a referendum on repealing constitutional amendments limiting the power of the president take place simultaneously with early elections? The President announced his intention to hold such a referendum...
- Yushchenko's statements indicate that he did not read the current constitution. One of the lawyers close to the president, Nikolai Onischuk, explained why the referendum and early elections cannot be combined. Elections will take place in two months. And the preparation of the referendum - the creation of initiative groups, their registration with the Central Election Commission, the collection of signatures of citizens who support the referendum - will take three to four months. The constitution itself spells out the mechanism for changing it - the draft amendments must receive 300 votes in parliament. A referendum can only be held in addition to the corresponding decision of parliament.
-- Yuriy Lutsenko, a member of the presidential election bloc, said the government will strengthen inspections of enterprises to replenish the party's coffers for the elections. He refers to the April 6 appeal of Deputy Prime Minister and one of the leaders of the Party of Regions Vladimir Rybak to Ukrainian enterprises with a request for financial assistance to the party. Did such facts take place?
- This is political speculation. No one will ever do this. The Party of Regions has no shortage of funding - among its sponsors are a lot of rich and extremely rich businessmen who have never hidden their political sympathies. Rybak addressed directly to the heads of enterprises - members of the Party of Regions. If such donations were allocated under pressure from the Party of Regions, then there would be more political hype than benefit.
At the same time, the “orange” - the same former head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yuriy Lutsenko and his colleague, former member of the state tax administration Mykola Katerynchuk - immediately after coming to power in 2005, terrorized enterprises that supported presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych in 2004. After being appointed prime minister in 2005, Yulia Tymoshenko, through special amendments to the budget, removed the provision banning unscheduled inspections of enterprises, which made it possible to organize “audit terror.” The President is still giving constitutionally prohibited instructions to the tax authorities and the police, and is also trying to put pressure on the government through the Security and Defense Council.
-- The opposition accuses the Party of Regions of intending to use administrative resources in early elections. In particular, the mayors of a number of large cities will allegedly be included in the party lists. How would you comment on this?
-- Using administrative resources and including popular politicians on lists are completely different things. The Party of Regions has not and will never use power in the regions for its own purposes. But the inclusion of popular politicians on party lists is a practice widespread in developed democratic countries.
In the east and south of the country, local councils and state administrations represent different political forces: as a rule, the “blue and white” (the colors of the Party of Regions - Ed. ) win in the local councils, and the “orange” (the colors of the opposition) are appointed from above in the administration. - Ed. ). I do not exclude the possibility of falsifications in those regions where the same force rules in the councils and administrations. In particular, in the central and certain western regions, all power in state administrations and local councils belongs to the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc. This is where numerous violations are possible.
- What will be the results of early elections?
-- Four parties will get into the Rada - the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, the pro-presidential bloc, the Communists and the Party of Regions. If the Party of Regions, which will be the undoubted leader of the race, manages to collect 37-38% of the votes, then it will have a chance to create a majority in the Rada and form a government, because as a result of the distribution of votes of the losing parties among the winners after the vote, the Party of Regions will be able to get 50% in parliament places
Otherwise, there are high chances of creating a “broad coalition” in parliament with the participation of the presidential bloc and the Party of Regions. We were ready to take this step after the 2006 elections. Last June, we initialed the corresponding agreement and even appointed presidential representatives to ministerial posts. However, the “orange” broke down the negotiations without warning. They don’t really know what they want, and their appetites for power are amazing.