Ukraine's parliament hit a new low on April 2 after failing to appoint a mayoral election in Kyiv.
The three opposition parties, angered by the failure, blocked
the work of the Verkhovna Rada once again. The parliament has been
blocked for weeks earlier this year as opposition demanded personal
voting by the deputies as required by constitution.
This time, the opposition
demanded that a new mayoral election is held on June 2, but after a
day of fruitless debate on many unrelated issues, only 209 deputies
out of 445 supported the move.
In the meantime, thousands
of Kyivans rallied outside the parliament building, demanding a new
election. The previous mayor, Leonid Chernovetsky, resigned in June
2012.
Oleksandr Yefremov, head
of the ruling Party of Regions’ faction, said his colleagues did not
vote for election because they will wait until the Constitutional
Court rules on when the elections should be held.
“We have warned
our colleagues that we better postpone this decision until the
Constitutional Court rules on this issue. But they refused, and so
they failed the vote,” Yefremov said.
The opposition does not
trust the Constitutional Court which, they claim, is fully controlled
by the ruling Party of Regions and will rule in favor of elections
taking place in 2015.
“The reason is
that Party of Regions do not have a person who is able to win
elections of mayor in Kyiv,” said Oleh Tiagnybok, one of the
opposition leaders who heads right wing Svoboda faction in
parliament.
Currently Galyna
Hereha, head of the Kyiv city council is acting as a city mayor. She
is a lot less visible than administrator Oleksandr Popov, who heads
the executive power in the city. Popov is a
member of the ruling Party of Regions and was
appointed by President Viktor Yanukovych.
The opposition said they
will continue pressuring for elections in Kyiv on April 3, they also
promised further street protests.
Meanwhile, Yefremov said
there is nothing to negotiate because, according to the parliament
rules of procedure, the same draft law cannot come to a vote more
then once in a single parliament session.The opposition, however, has another draft law on the same issue which sets a date of the elections in Kyiv 60 days after the draft is passed by the Parliament.
The opposition warned that
the precedent with mayoral election can be extended to the national
presidential election in 2015 if the authorities are not confident
they can win it.
‘If this practice will
continue further, we will not only be deprived of mayor elections,
but of presidential elections, and all elections in the country,”
said Vitali Klitschko, leader of Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for
Reform.
Kyiv Post staff
writer Svitlana Tuchynska can be reached at [email protected]
