Unlike Viktor Yushchenko, who came to power with a huge mandate for reform, riding the waves of the Orange Revolution, and then proceeded to blow his unique opportunity to smithereens, Viktor Yanukovych was elected with the slimmest majority in the history of independent Ukraine, but is very rapidly undermining the Constitution he is legally bound to uphold and defend in what is increasingly looking like an attempt to consolidate dictatorial power in his hands — a process which is ominously reminiscent of the path by which a certain German politician dismantled the democratic constitution of the Weimar Republic in 1933.
First, parliament cobbled together a majority of 235 from the 219 members of the Party of Regions, Communist and Lytvyn factions plus 16 turncoats from Our Ukraine and the Yulia Tymoshenko blocs to pass a motion allowing a coalition to be formed with renegades from other blocs instead of the factions themselves as is called for by the Constitution — a requirement upheld by a Constitutional Court decision of 2008. That was the first unconstitutional act because an amendment to the Constitution requires 300 votes — not 235.
Then the same 235 proceeded to form a government. That was the second unconstitutional act, again because the Constitution requires a government to be formed by factions on the basis of a majority vote of their members. That’s because in the Ukrainian electoral system deputies are not elected as individuals but as members of a bloc.
In the last parliamentary elections, voters chose to give a slim majority to the Tymoshenko and Our Ukraine blocs. Since the Tymoshenko government was voted out and a new government could not be created constitutionally, the duty of the president was to call new elections. That’s also very clearly spelled out in the Constitution.
Yanukovych didn’t want to do that because, as the first round of the presidential elections clearly showed, his own Party of Regions could finds its numbers depleted and new forces led by contenders Serhiy Tihipko and Arseniy Yatsenyk would join the Tymoshenko bloc and a rump Our Ukraine in parliament. New players may demand bigger roles or even reach a coalition agreement with the opposition. It was so much easier for Yanukovych to gather a motley crew of his own cronies, Communists and Lytvyn bloc members (who were easy to manipulate because they could face political elimination by failing to pass the three percent barrier in a new election) and a bunch of political prostitutes from the opposition who only want to line their own pockets.
Thus he could put together an easily controlled cabinet of Male Chauvinist Pigs, headed by a prime minister who can’t speak Ukrainian and starring an education minister who is determined to undermine the Ukrainian language in the school system.
Third, through bribery and coercion, he got the Constitutional Court to reverse its earlier ruling and approve the new government — a move which clearly undermines the independence of the judiciary, thus hammering another nail into the coffin of the Constitution. What’s more, there are reports that the Party of Regions may choose to reverse the constitutional changes of 2006 which limited presidential powers, thus paving the road to dictatorship.
No less a personage than Leonid Kravchuk has warned Yanukovych that such disregard for the constitution can lead to political violence (see the letter adjoining this editorial).
What makes this even worse is that Yanukovych apparently made his unconstitutional moves with the tacit approval of Western governments. This is abominable. It’s one thing to respect the decision of the voters of Ukraine. It’s another to sit idly by while the newly-elected president proceeds to undermine the Constitution under which he was elected. We in the diaspora and our representative bodies have to take a clear stand against the unconstitutional acts of Yanukovych and we have to let our governments know where we stand on this issue. Usurping power by undermining the Constitution of Ukraine cannot be tolerated and the only thing for Yanukovych to do now is to call new parliamentary elections as is required by the Constitution.
Marco Levytsky is the editor and publisher of Ukrainian News, a bi-weekly newspaper distributed across Canada.
