Tensions are running high in the struggle for seats in the new government as the competing business and political groups that helped President Leonid Kuchma gain a second term jostle for substantial post-election rewards.
At least half-dozen people are said to be eyeing the post of prime minister. And as each contender vies for the support of pro-Kuchma parliamentary factions, promises of future Cabinet jobs are being passed down the political hierarchy to faction members.
Kuchma upped the ante on Nov. 22 when he said that after his inauguration ceremony on Nov. 30, he would propose that parliament re-appoint the present prime minister, Valery Pustovoitenko.
However, many analysts doubt that Pustovoitenko stands a good chance of being approved, as several other influential figures in the Kuchma administration, backed by strong parliamentary factions, have their hearts set on the post.
State Security Service chief Leonid Derkach and State Tax Administration chief Mykola Azarov are among the main contenders.
Parliament deputy speaker Viktor Medvedchuk, who together with his friend, lawmaker and honorary president of the Dynamo Kyiv soccer club, Hryhoriy Surkis, are Kuchma’s close allies, is said to have also wanted to be prime minister. However, he has since changed his mind, and opted instead to strengthen his position within the Social Democratic Party (united) faction in parliament.
Other hopefuls named by political pundits include First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Kinakh and Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the Batkivshchyna faction and once an ally of former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko.
National Bank chief Viktor Yushchenko is also reportedly seeking the prime minister post, but demanded sufficient powers to implement radical economic reforms in return, several observers told the Post.
‘All of these people have a chance to win, including Pustovoitenko. It’s all a matter of tactics,’ said political observer Vyacheslav Pikhovshek.
‘The first nominee [Pustovoitenko] is likely to be voted down [by parliament], but the second one should be approved,’ Pikhovshek said.
According to the Constitution, a new Cabinet is to be formed after the president-elect is sworn into office.
The process starts when the president submits to parliament his nominee for prime minister, who needs to secure a majority of deputies’ votes to take the post. The prime minister then submits his candidacies for Cabinet posts to the president for approval.
Analysts say that after the prime minister is appointed, Kuchma himself is likely to hand-pick people for top Cabinet posts, and some newcomers to the executive might be included.
In particular, observers speculate that Deputy Prime Minister Serhy Tyhypko might consider quitting his job, depending on who becomes the next prime minister, and return to the Privat Bank, where he worked before being appointed to the government in July 1997.
Ihor Mityukov is expected to be re-appointed as the finance minister, and Vasyl Rohovy economy minister.
A number of other, lesser positions are expected to be left to the as yet-unformed pro-presidential parliamentary coalition to divide among themselves.
Negotiations on formation of the coalition continue, albeit slowly, as pro-presidential lawmakers try to resolve conflicting interests.
Deputies say the election of the prime minister would hasten the formation of a pro-presidential coalition.
‘[The appointment of the prime minister] will open the way for the final formation of the coalition in the Verkhovna Rada,’ said Mykhailo Syrota of the influential Labor Party faction, which has nominated Derkach for the post of prime minister.
Meanwhile, the pro-presidential factions are forming smaller sub-coalition unions to better defend their interests and present a united political front.
The largest of these groups numbers 107 deputies out of the Rada’s 450 total, and includes the Greens Party faction, Tymoshenko’s Batkivschyna, the Labor Party faction and Yury Kostenko’s Rukh.
The second group of 67 deputies is composed of the Revival of the Regions faction, chaired de facto by Kuchma’s close aide Oleksandr Volkov, and Medvedchuk’s Social Democrats.
The third has 29 lawmakers and includes Hennady Udovenko’s Rukh and the formerly opposition-minded Reform-Congress faction, led by former Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Pynzenyk.
The individual factions in each of these three groups are now negotiating over which government posts to aim for, while at the same time reconciling their ambitions with the other sub-coalition unions.
Occasionally, they name potential candidates for certain government jobs to assess the reaction of both potential coalition members and the opposition.
At the same time, the pro-government factions are seeking to strengthen their positions by attracting new members from the ranks of their leftist rivals or non-affiliated deputies. Last week, four deputies switched camps and joined Social Democrats (united) and the Labor Party faction.
Deputies are tempted to switch factions not just by the promise of possible appointments to lucrative jobs, however. Several lawmakers have said that businessmen in some Rada factions looking to attract new members are ready to pay from $5,000 to $70,000 to those who switch camps.
Meanwhile, the factions not participating in the coalition talks are debating who they will support as prime minister.
The Peasant Party faction leader, Serhy Dovhan, said his lawmakers could support Pustovoitenko, but not Tymoshenko.
‘Tymoshenko has yet to learn – she would run the country as if it were her own firm,’ he said.
The Peasants, one of parliament’s smallest factions, have reason to be loyal to Kuchma. After one of their key members, speaker Oleksandr Tkachenko, supported Kuchma’s Communist rival in the Nov. 14 run-off election, lawmakers have increasingly speculated that pro-Kuchma factions might try to oust Tkachenko from the speaker’s chair, replacing him with someone more to their liking.
Other small factions, wanting to have a say in the formation of the new government, but too weak to fight for top jobs, can hope for no more than secondary posts.
The Greens Party said it wanted to take the health minister and environment minister posts and keep Oleh Shevchuk as chairman of the State Communications Committee.
‘This is all we can hope for,’ said Ihor Havrylov, a Greens Party faction member.
Udovenko’s Rukh wants seats in the Cabinet for two of its own members – Les Tanyuk, who the faction wants to become culture minister, and Roman Shmidt in an unspecified Cabinet role.
Pynzenyk’s Refoms-Congress is more ambitious and intends to have at least four its people appointed to the Cabinet.
