Ukraine’s parliament split in two groups on April 4, as the pro-presidential majority conducted an alternative parliament session, while the opposition gathered in the regular session hall. The majority’s decision was branded as “a coup” by the opposition, which is calling for demonstrations.
This conflict is the latest development in a series of gridlocks in parliament, which has kept the legislature mostly paralyzed since its election on Oct. 28. The latest standoff started on April 2, when the opposition blocked the work of the session, demanding a new election in Kyiv.
The capital has had no mayor since July 2012, when the old mayor resigned. The Party of Regions, however, insists that a new mayoral election should be appointed after the Constitutional Court produces a ruling on when and how it should be conducted.
After failing to find a common ground with the opposition on mayoral election and unblocking the Verkhovna Rada, the majority, comprised of the Party of Regions, Communist party, some non-aligned deputies and even two Batkivshchyna deputies who quit their faction, took a vote by show of hands to conduct a session in an alternative location. A total of 244 deputies supported the move.
Speaker Volodymyr Rybak, who presided over the session held in the committee building on 6-8 Bankova Street, said the law allowed for a parliament session outside the regular location, as long as it was supported by the majority.
“I asked for advice from lawyers, and they said it does not contradict the rules of procedure,” he told journalists at a briefing. “We cannot have a parliament that is not working for six months. We either have to self-dissolve, or ask the president to dissolve us.”
The opposition, which convened in the regular session hall, disagreed with the majority’s reasoning, and said their gathering was, in fact, illegitimate.
Viktor Chumak, an opposition member of parliament from Vitali Klitschko’s Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reforms, said that according to a July 2012 Constitutional Court decision, a parliament session can be held in an alternative location only once it’s approved by a vote in the regular session hall.
“First they should pass the decision in the parliament building, about gathering anywhere else. And then they can gather anywhere else,” Chumak said.
Arseniy Yatseniuk, one of the leaders of the opposition who heads the Batkivshchyna faction, has called the new gathering “a coup” and called on the general prosecutor to start an investigation.
“Any attempts to make decisions this way is an attempt to seize power and is a violation of the Ukrainian constitution,” Yatseniuk said. The opposition also called for a street protest on April 7.
Dozens of members of the three oppositional factions attempted to enter the building where the majority’s session was being conducted, but the building was blocked by the state guard, said Oleksandr Bryhynets, a Batkivshchyna member.
In the meantime, the majority held a very fruitful session, approving 20 laws in just a few hours, part of them in the final reading. Some of the laws are key for the nation’s politics and economy. For example, changes were introduced in public procurement legislation, limiting participation of foreign companies in government tenders, unless they have production facilities in Ukraine.
The state budget was amended, relieving the notoriously corrupt state company Ukravtodor, which is in charge of the nation’s roads, from the requirement to provide collateral for banking loans taken under state guarantees.
Despite the fact that the majority voted by show of hands, the process of vote counting was lighting fast. Speaker Rybak announced the result instantly, which caused much ridicule by the observers who were able to watch a live broadcast via parliament’s official Rada TV channel.
The status of the session and the laws approved on April 4 remain unclear. Oleksiy Haran, professor of political sciences at Kyiv Mohyla Academy, says the laws are “extremely controversial” because the legitimacy of both the majority’s session and the voting procedure is under question.
He said a compromise is needed badly between the majority and the opposition, starting with a compromise on the mayoral election, which caused the latest gridlock.
Haran says that everything hinges on the political will of the puppet masters, primarily President Viktor Yanukovych and his administration. “If there is a decision to break everyone’s spine, there will be no compromises,” he says.
The president’s administration had no immediate comment on the events, though, and a compromise seems as far from anyone’s mind as ever.
Speaker Rybak said the morning session on April 5 will move back to the session hall, but Party of Regions faction head Oleksandr Yefremov said there were conditions attached: “We will come back to the hall under one condition – do not set us any ultimatums.”
Kyiv Post editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at gorchinskaya@kyivpost.com. Kyiv Post staff writer Svitlana Tuchynska contributed to this report.
