(AP) – Ukraine’s Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn on Nov. 13 called for cancellation of a new raise for lawmakers that increased their pay by two-thirds.
With four months remaining before highly anticipated parliamentary elections, Lytvyn said the salary increase, which the Cabinet approved in September, had no basis.
“It’s not that it would have been a burden on the 2006 state budget, but it would have been a burden on the election campaign,” Lytvyn said. “It is absolutely impossible to explain this salary to people.”
Many lawmakers appear to be similarly wary of the move, which increased monthly salaries to 15,000 hryvnas ($3,000 dollars, 2,500 euros ) – about 50 times Ukraine’s minimum wage.
“I cannot allow myself and I don’t want to receive a salary which is 40 times more than the pensions of my parents who worked for 30 or 40 years,” opposition lawmaker Ihor Shurma said.
