Editor’s Note: Every week Kyiv Post journalist Oleg Sukhov picks a winner and loser in Ukraine’s drive to transform itself into a rule-of-law, European-style democracy.
Reformer of the week – Pavlo Parkhomenko
Pavlo Parkhomenko, a judge at Chernihiv Oblast’s Bakhmach District Court, was the only remaining well-known nominee for the Supreme Court with a good reputation.
Yet the High Council of Justice rejected his appointment to the Supreme Court on March 20 without explaining the reasons. The council did not respond to a request for comment.
In January the DEJURE Foundation, a legal think-tank, awarded the prize of “Honor of the Year 2018” to Parkhomenko. DEJURE Foundation said that he had been meticulously protecting human rights while considering cases involving children and teenagers.
Other candidates with good reputations who have dropped out of the competition for the Supreme Court at different stages are Vitaly Tytych, Vitaly Radchenko and Serhiy Chumak. Anti-corruption activists believe the competition for the Supreme Court and the anti-corruption court was rigged to promote politically loyal candidates and throw out independent ones.
Meanwhile, the High Council of Justice appointed 10 Supreme Court judges who had been vetoed by Public Integrity Council for violations of ethics standards.
The council also nominated seven candidates for the High Anti-Corruption Court who had previously been identified by anti-corruption watchdogs as not meeting integrity standards. The council delayed until March 28 its decision on appointing lawyer Markiyan Halabala, who had been praised by civil society.
Another anti-corruption court nominee who’s still waiting for his appointment, Serhiy Bodnar, has no legal right to be a judge of the court because he had an agreement to represent the interests of President Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc in court in 2017, according to several lawyers.
Candidates with good reputations who have dropped out of the competition for the anti-corruption court are Larysa Golnyk, Roman Bregei and Viktor Fomin.
Anti-reformer of the week – Serhiy Berezenko
Serhiy Berezenko, a lawmaker from President Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc, is under investigation over the president’s alleged $56 million vote buying scheme, according to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.
Berezenko has denied Avakov’s accusations, accusing him of political bias.
The Interior Ministry said on March 18 that Berezenko had failed to show up for questioning. Berezenko argued that the police had improperly issued a summons and that he had been busy working at the Verkhovna Rada.
In a Feb. 23 interview with the Dzerkalo Tyzhnia newspaper, Avakov exposed Poroshenko’s campaign’s alleged vote buying scheme. Avakov said it involved 200,000 paid campaign workers, was expected to cover from 700,000 to 6 million voters and would cost some $56 million. Poroshenko denied the accusations.
Avakov said that Poroshenko’s campaign workers were identifying the president’s supporters in order to give them financial benefits from the state budget as a form of vote buying. Voters identified as loyal were asked by campaign workers to fill in applications for such state subsidies, Avakov said.
In 2015 Berezenko was also accused of buying votes when he ran for a parliamentary seat in a constituency in the city of Chernihiv.
From 2006 to 2012, Berezenko was a member of ex-Kyiv Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky’s team, which was accused of large-scale vote buying, political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko and political consultant Serhiy Gaidai said. Another former member of Chernovetsky’s team is Poroshenko’s top ally and lawmaker Ihor Kononenko.
