Ukrainian Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn has criticized the prospects of holding a nationwide debate on a bill of constitutional amendments.
He made the comment at a press conference in Mykolaiv on Tuesday,
while commenting on President Viktor Yuschenko’s decree to hold a
nationwide debate on the president’s draft of constitutional
amendments, the parliament’s press service reported.
“The president has invented a new form – a nationwide debate,
however, it’s unclear what legal grounds are present here. It’s quite
clear that there is some sort of political and moral dimension here.
The conclusion is obvious for me – this is an election scheme,” Lytvyn
said.
“I will venture to affirm that there will be no referendum, because
in order to declare it, it’s necessary to meet a number of conditions,
in particular, to create initiative groups that should be registered,
and then to collect three million signatures from citizens, including
at least 100,000 signatures each in two thirds of the regions,” he said.
