Communists prepared to paralyze lawmaking for sake of class interests

Many things are known to have changed since the days of the velvet revolution. Gone is former Speaker Oleksandr Tkachenko who, trying to ward off his dismissal, revealed the names of those majority members who were absent when the decision was being made, and pronounced it invalid. Yet his cause lives on: the know-how he invented is now being used by his colleagues of the Left. After the draft Land Code had been approved in the first reading, Communist (KPU) leader Petro Symonenko identified all the ghost Deputies absent at the moment in the session hall. “We have found that 36 deputies, whose names the voting printout contains, did not register themselves either by cards or in the lists. Moreover, the KPU faction has conducted an inquiry and found that some of these deputies are absent from Kyiv and Ukraine and others are ill, so they cannot possibly take part in voting,” Alla Aleksandrovska, KPU faction member, told The Day.

Speaker Ivan Pliushch clearly failed to properly reckon with the Communist ploys and tried not to make a big deal of them. In reply, hurt by this slight, the Left launched on July 7 a crusade against the parliamentary rostrum and in fact occupied it, with short breaks, for a period of two sittings. This PR-action was to be expected because the Communists and Socialists consistently opposed the adoption of this code and obstructed any decision to this effect with all methods they could think of. This is quite clear, for what is at stake is the strongest trump card of the Left’s social demagogy: protection of the peasantry, the image of “land toilers” advocates,” and, in general, the Left’s collective farm base. It could thus be predicted that they would try to grasp for any straw to foil the adoption of the Land Code. But no one could expect the majority to extend to the drowning Left not just a straw but a solid stick to clutch at, presenting them with such a royal gift as casting a doubt on the voting process. In fact, the winter’s tale repeated itself: voting, accusations of its being rigged, doubt cast on correctness of the decision made, and intervention of the rules committee. However, the current situation is somewhat more complicated.

First, the law adopted has no retroactive effect. But if violations were committed during the vote, which call into question the legality of the decision made, this creates quite a complicated situation. Secondly, and more importantly, the presidential version of constitutional amendments is to be put to the vote on Thursday. The very word implementation already provokes an inadequate reaction in the deputies: hearing this word, some begin to get nervous, others fall flat, still others begin to fume or express in other ways their concern about putting the people’s will into practice. Procedural obstacles could also come to the fore. Imagine the situation: the bill has been voted on, but then the Communists decide to cast doubt that no rigging or other violations took place during the voting. It is difficult even to conjecture what will come of all this. But what is absolutely clear, it will be nothing good.

Now the Rules Committee, which Mr. Pliushch instructed to clarify the Land Code voting situation, is trying to shed light on these mysterious events. Committee Chairman Viktor Omelych told his colleagues last Friday that the task he was assigned was extremely complicated and intricate. The committee’s Communist members did not agree. “It took us only one and a half hours to find where the nonvoting deputies were,” Ms. Aleksandrovska said. While awaiting the Rules Committee decision, the Deputies are now lost in reverie over what to do about the people’s will, for now the question of whether or not to support the presidential version has been supplemented with the problem of how to formally settle this worrisome process. The last week of parliamentary proceedings (which also included debates on constitutional amendments) went far from smoothly.