Reformer of the week – Viktor Chumak
Viktor Chumak, a member of the Verkhovna Rada, has been pushing for legislation to introduce a fairer electoral system.
He co-authored a bill on electoral reform that parliament failed to pass on Oct. 19. But similar legislation based on Chumak’s was approved by the Verkhovna Rada at first reading on Nov. 7 as thousands of protesters rallied outside parliament to demand the reform.
The election bill backed by protesters seeks to scrap single-mandate election districts, a major vehicle of political corruption, and introduce “open party lists,” which means that citizens will vote not only for parties themselves, but also for specific candidates nominated by the parties.
The demonstrators, who set up a tent camp in front of the Rada on Oct. 17, are also demanding the creation of an anti-corruption court, the lifting of lawmakers’ immunity from prosecution, and a bill allowing presidential impeachment.
On Oct. 19, parliament sent two bills on lifting lawmakers’ immunity for consideration to the Constitutional Court, but President Petro Poroshenko has so far failed to submit a bill on an anti-corruption court. A bill regulating presidential impeachment has been submitted by lawmaker Yuriy Derevyanko but has not yet been considered by parliament.
Protesters are planning to hold a big march for their demands on Nov. 12.
Anti-reformer of the week – Olga Stupak
The High Council of Justice on Nov. 9 appointed Olga Stupak, a judge of the High Specialized Court for Civil and Criminal Cases, as a judge of the Supreme Court, bringing the total number of discredited nominated judges of the court to 26.
Stupak and 25 out of the 114 new Supreme Court judges appointed by the High Council of Justice in September to November had been vetoed by the Public Integrity Council due to evidence of ill-gotten wealth or unlawful rulings, but the judicial body ignored the vetoes. President Petro Poroshenko signed the credentials of 113 of the 114 Supreme Court judges on Nov. 10.
The Public Integrity Council said it had vetoed Stupak because she failed to declare real estate that belongs to her, and her income does not match her expenditures. Stupak denies accusations of wrongdoing. She owns land plots with an area of over 10,000 square meters, two houses, a Toyota Camry, a BMW and 22,000 euros and Hr 76,000 in cash.
The High Council of Justice also appointed Oleksandra Yanovska and Vadym Korotun as Supreme Court judges on Nov. 9. In July the pro-government majority in the Verkhovna Rada unsuccessfully tried to install Yanovska, reportedly a presidential protégé, as an auditor of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, in what critics believe to be an effort by Poroshenko to control the bureau.
Meanwhile, the newly-appointed Supreme Court judges Stanislav Kravchenko and Serhiy Slynko were the ones who released senior police officer Olexiy Pukach from custody, which allowed him to flee in 2003, with Pukach’s lawyer saying that this was done on the orders of then President Leonid Kuchma. Pukach was later caught and convicted in 2013 of murdering journalist Georgy Gongadze.
Slynko and another new Supreme Court judge, Vyacheslav Nastavny, participated in the political persecution of Yuriy Lutsenko, now prosecutor general, and the Pavlychenko family under ex-President Viktor Yanukovych. Both cases have been recognized as political by Ukrainian and European authorities.
Meanwhile, the National Police on Nov. 9 summoned High Council of Justice members Pavlo Grechkivsky and Yaroslav Romanyuk for interrogation due to a possible conflict of interest during the appointment of Supreme Court judges.
Grechkivsky, who is on trial in a graft case, is an associate of Mykola Martynenko, an ex-People’s Front lawmaker and also a suspect in a graft case, and reportedly an ally of Poroshenko Bloc lawmaker Ihor Kononenko.
The council rejected a request by Romanyuk to recuse himself due to his participation in the Supreme Court competition. In August Romanyuk, previously a protégé of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, was filmed by Radio Liberty at the birthday party of Valery Heletei, who heads President Petro Poroshenko’s security guard detachment.
The High Council of Justice has been criticized for dismissing 48 out of its members’ 52 recusals from voting for specific Supreme Court candidates due to a conflict of interest and appointed two of its own members as Supreme Court judges, which was also seen as a conflict of interest.
The High Council of Justice dealt another blow to the judiciary’s image on Nov. 7 by appointing Svitlana Zakharchuk, who is accused of unlawfully trying EuroMaidan activists, as a judge of Kyiv’s Podil District Court for life.
