The Verkovna Rada on Nov. 7 passed in the first reading a bill to introduce a fairer electoral system, while outside thousands of protesters demanding voting reform rallied in front of the parliament building.
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 the Verkhovna Rada.
Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, a former ally and now political foe of Poroshenko, said at the Nov. 7 rally that the protests would continue until all of the demonstrators’ demands are fully met.
“(The authorities) have deceived us,” Saakashvili said. “They have been lying and have been reluctant to meet the people’s demands. Today is their last chance. If they demonstrate that they are not interested in your ideas, tonight we have got to announce another plan – not just about limited demands, but a plan for completely replacing the whole Ukrainian government through peaceful means.”
He suggested holding a big march to demand bills on presidential impeachment and an anti-corruption court on Nov. 12. If the authorities don’t accept the demands, the people should “impeach” Poroshenko themselves, Saakashvili added.
“If they don’t listen to us, I suggest that the people begin the procedure of the ‘popular impeachment’ (of Poroshenko) starting from Dec. 3,” he said, implying large-scale protests.
Saakashvili referred to massive protests that led to the impeachment of South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in 2016.
“When there are a million of us, (top officials) will pack their suitcases and try to flee, but they won’t be able to do so,” Vladyslav Olenchenko, a top member of the Democratic Alliance party, said at the rally.
Election bill
The election bill backed by protesters seeks to scrap single-mandate election districts and leave only party-list proportional representation. Single-mandate districts are seen as a major vehicle of political corruption in Ukraine, with wealthy candidates buying votes in their constituencies.
The draft bill also seeks to 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 candidates who get more votes will move closer to the top of party lists, and be more likely to be elected. Under the current system, party leaders can arbitrarily choose the order in which candidates appear on party lists, thus determining the order of those elected.
The demonstrators also called for the replacement of the current discredited Central Election Commission, which they argue is completely controlled by Poroshenko.
The legal authority of 12 out of the Central Election Commission’s 15 members, including its Chairman Mykhailo Okhendovsky, expired in 2014, but parliament passed a law to extend their powers until new members are appointed. However, since then Poroshenko and the Verkhovna Rada have failed to replace these members, which some lawyers believe to be illegal.
Okhendovsky, an ex-ally of former President Viktor Yanukovych, has been charged with receiving bribes worth $100,000 in 2010 and $61,000 in 2012 from Yanukovych’s Party of Regions. His name features in the party’s alleged off-the-book ledgers published last year.
Monument to rebellion
The protesters also unveiled in front of parliament on Nov. 7 a stone monument with an inscription reading: “If the government violates the people’s rights, revolt is their sacred right and duty.” The monument is devoted to the over 100 protesters killed during the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution and thousands who died for Ukraine’s independence as part of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The monument is based on the Black Cone, or Monument To Civil Disobedience, in front of Iceland’s parliament, set up in 2012. The monument is marked with a plaque bearing a quote from the French Revolution’s Declaration Of The Rights Of Man And Of The Citizen: “When the government violates the rights of the people, insurrection is for the people and for each portion of the people the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties.”
The Black Cone was devoted to Iceland’s 2008-2011 financial crisis protests, which led to the resignation and prosecution of Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde. The Ukrainian demonstrators also compared Icelandic Prime Minister David Gunnlaugsson, who resigned in 2016 due to protests over the Panama Papers offshore scandal, to President Petro Poroshenko, who also features in the Panama Papers.
The demonstrators from Odesa who brought the stone to Kyiv said they have been repeatedly stopped and harassed by the police and the Security Service of Ukraine when trying to bring it before. Numerous activists from other regions also said they had been blocked by police when trying to get to Kyiv for the Nov. 7 rally.
Saakashvili said at the rally that Mykhailo Apostol, an aide to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, was negotiating the ex-Georgian president’s possible extradition to his native country.
Apostol, who has been accused of blocking police reform, received a $1.4 million bribe from ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions in 2012, according to the party’s alleged off-the-book ledger. He denies the accusations.
Saakashvili also said on Nov. 6 and Nov. 7 that a Poroshenko associate had told him that, if he continued to criticize the president’s alleged corruption, especially in the defense industry, he would be deported to Georgia.
Saakashvili on Nov. 7 published a document issed by the State Migration Service according to which he was seeking asylum status in Ukraine. Under Ukrainian law, people seeking asylum status cannot be deported or extradited.
After most of the police and National Guards left the perimeter of the protest camp on Oct. 21, the protesters significantly expanded the area under their control, and put up new fences serving as barricades. Currently they have more than 70 large army tents and three large marquees for organizational purposes.
