Ukraine’s parliament on Nov. 7 soundly rejected a motion to dismiss Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.
The bill to fire Avakov for “failing to reform the police system” was proposed by a lawmaker from the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko faction in the Verkhovna Rada, Sergiy Kalinin.
Only 31 lawmakers voted to fire Avakov, with 226 votes needed for the vote to pass, while 102 voted against. Fifty-six lawmakers didn’t vote at all.
Avakov, who has been Ukraine’s interior minister since 2014, has been mired in scandal since his son Oleksandr was arrested by The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine on Oct. 31. Avakov’s son, ex-Deputy Interior Minister Serhiy Chebotar and IT firm Turboseo’s CEO Volodymyr Lytvyn have been charged with embezzling Hr 14 million in a case related to the supply of overpriced backpacks to the Interior Ministry.
Avakov’s son was released on Nov. 1 without having to pay bail.
Before the vote, the big political parties in the Rada – the People’s Front with 81 seats, the Opposition Bloc with 43 seats, and the Radical Party and Batkivshchyna Party, each of which has 20 seats – announced that they wouldn’t support the bill.
The motion to dismiss Avakov was mainly supported by independent lawmakers (13 votes), and lawmakers from the Samopomich Party faction (9) Bloc of Petro Poroshenko (8), and one lawmaker from the Batkivshchyna Party.
