After weeks of infighting, the liberal Voice party is on the verge of breaking in half.
Ten out of the party’s 20 lawmakers have created their own unofficial parliamentary group called Justice (Spravedlyvist) and accused Voice’s leaders of abusing their power.
“We understand that the leadership of the party and the faction has deviated from the values and views they declared when entering politics. Now there is an abyss between them and the party members and supporters of the Voice,” the ten dissatisfied lawmakers said in a statement.
They include Solomiya Bobrovska, Halyna Vasylchenko, Yulia Klymenko, Roman Lozynsky, Natalia Pipa, Olga Stefanyshyna, Oleksandra Ustinova, Volodymyr Tsabal, Andriy Sharaskin and Yaroslav Yurchyshyn.
Party leader Kira Rudyk and parliamentary faction leader Yaroslav Zheleznyak have yet to react to the lawmakers’ decision.
The party has been disintegrating for weeks. Some prominent members like Serhiy Prytula have quit the party, which has been embroiled in many public arguments.
In an elaborate June 16 statement, the dissatisfied lawmakers expressed their distrust of Rudyk and Zheleznyak.
They demanded Rudyk’s expulsion from the party for missing over 60% of parliamentary sessions.
“The Voice program clearly stated that we would exclude deputies who missed more than half of the sessions,” they said. “We must keep the promises made to the voters.”
Rudyk was also accused of “usurping” control of Voice and amending the party statute to give herself significant powers.
“This person gained full power and control over all political, administrative, personnel and financial resources of the party, and most importantly – the ability to make decisions alone,” the statement reads.
Voice has two governing bodies: the political council and the party congress. According to the current party statute, Rudyk can single-handedly block any decision by the political council and refuse to convene the party congress, according to the statement.
The unhappy lawmakers also accused Zheleznyak, the head of the faction, of breaking the law by refusing to call faction meetings at the request of its members.
The most recent fight among Voice members was sparked on June 15 when five lawmakers, including Rudyk and Zheleznyak, voted to introduce a bill that may undo a law that requires all foreign-language films and series aired on TV to be dubbed in Ukrainian.
The bill required 226 votes to get on the parliament’s agenda — it received 227. If five Voice lawmakers voted against the bill, it wouldn’t have advanced.
Voice has been actively backing laws that support Ukrainian language. The dissatisfied lawmakers accused the rest of the party of “supporting Russification instead of protecting the Ukrainian language and culture.”
Rudyk called the vote a mistake.
“My colleagues from the faction and I have already submitted an application to recall the votes. This mistake occurred because these bills were in the same draft resolution with others. I emphasize that this is a wrong inclusion in the agenda, not a vote for the law,” Rudyk wrote on Facebook.
“Voice will not support any initiatives aimed at calling into question the laws on the Ukrainian language,” she added.
