HOW WILL PARLIAMENT FINISH ITS WORK?

Of course they cannot deal with the most highly-charged conflict-ridden, such as dismissing the Pustovoitenko government, Kuchma's impeachment, or moving the Constitutional Court out of Kyiv. They simply cannot solve such issues in the time they have left. But among the unfinished business there are just as important, but not as conflict-laden problems, such as appointing an ombudsman responsible to the legislative branch.

The process of creating a human rights institution in Ukraine has taken already several years. However, in January President Kuchma signed the relevant law, after Parliament accepted all his suggestions, narrowing the ombudsman's jurisdiction. However, after all the changes, the institution remains an independent organ to protect people out of court. The only thing left was to launch the mechanism, appointing to this post a responsible person, who would be able to consider not only formal legislative norms, but also "justice and personal honesty." The first round of elections took place on February 11 and showed that the present Verkhovna Rada is unlikely to come to any decision.

Names of the deputy chairmen of the parliamentary committee for human rights Nina Karpachova and Serhiy Kyiashko along with the ex-Minister of Justice Serhiy Holovaty were the candidates. In the first stage, Karpachova with 123 votes and Holovaty with 57 have made it to the second round. Kyiashko received only 42 votes. Let us try to understand the positions of political forces division before the second round of voting to take place this month.

First of all, I would like to note, that the executive has refrained from nominating its own candidate. Probably under different conditions, the Presidential Administration would have bet on Serhiy Holovaty, who was one of the most loyal presidential supporters as deputy. However, his relations with the administration grew much worse after his sudden dismissal from his ministerial post last summer. The President does not much trust those, whom he has insulted, if you consider it merely an insult that he broke his promise that Holovaty would keep the minister's seat as long as Kuchma is President. On the other hand, Holovaty chances of attracting many votes are low. Although he has criticized the executive, because many deputies still remember the key role he played in signing the Constitutional Agreement, not to mention his two years as Justice Minister.

The failure of Kyiashko, one of the leaders of Socialist Party, shows that many Leftists will not vote for him.

In this situation, Nina Karpachova seems to have the best chance: she has a doctorate in law, is co-author of a number of bills to protect human rights. In the first round of voting she received twice as many votes as her opponents. She would seem to have every chance to win the second round easily. However, she has less chances than it at first seems. First, Karpachova does not belong to the Left wing, so Leftists, who did not support one of their own, are unlikely to vote for her. Moreover, she was born in the Crimea, which is worse than Dnipropetrovsk origin in the eyes of most Solons. However, these obstacles are subjective; objective obstacles are Kuchma, the Communists and Speaker Moroz.

Kuchma's position is understandable; he simply has no need for an independent and authorized ombudsman. Because of its functions, the executive would be the main object of ombudsman activity.

The Communists point of view is also understandable: they are blocking the elections, hoping that their influence will increase in the new Parliament, and they will be able to put their own man to the post, not a Socialist.

Speaker Oleksandr Moroz's position is the most interesting. He is rumored to be keeping the post for himself, because he is not certain whether he will retain his current job. However, there is also another version which is more likely to be true: Moroz knows that the Communists want to put their man in the post and is hoping to leave it vacant for horse-trading in the new Parliament.

Considering all this, election of the human rights official by the current Parliament is unlikely, although it might be a worthy ending to session's history with relatively few positive attainment's to its credit.