Is It Difficult to Reject the President’s Proposal?
On June 20, President Leonid Kuchma submitted to Verkhovna Rada a new version of his draft law on changes to the Constitution. The president said in his televised address to the Ukrainian people last Thursday that the updated draft law will no longer include provisions on a bicameral parliament, reduced number of deputies, and making national referendum decisions binding.
According to Pres. Kuchma, the three provisions that he is ready to renounce “were the matter of a heated debate between the president and his opponents,” adding, “But we had no right to engage in a tug-of-war and waste time, so I have removed these barriers.” At the same time, he expressed hope of reaching a compromise with the parliament about other provisions of the updated bill, such as the procedure of forming the cabinet (the premier’s candidature is to be proposed to Verkhovna Rada by the president “with the knowledge and consent of the parliamentary majority”), the right of the president to appoint, at the premier’s recommendation, the ministers of foreign affairs, defense, and internal affairs, heads of the State Tax Administration, the State Customs Service, the State Security Committee, and the State Border Security Force, as well as to dissolve the parliament on three special occasions.
The president is also convinced that elections of the president and members of parliament and local self-government bodies should be held once every five years. “We should not place a too onerous burden on Ukrainian and foreign political technologists,” Mr. Kuchma noted. The president stressed again that “the next presidential elections should take place in 2004.”
Borys ANDRESIUK , SDPU(O) faction:
“Earlier, the president’s opponents kept telling him that he conceived the political reform just for effect. The president’s address and the submission of the bill to Verkhovna Rada shows that Leonid Kuchma is deeply interested in carrying out the political reform well before the end of his presidential term. His radical change of position about a bicameral parliament, legally binding referendums, the number of people’s deputies, and some other issues shows that the president is not averse to a negotiated settlement. Of course, today there still are a number of debatable points in both the parliamentary and the presidential versions. But the ball is now in the court of the lawmakers, the leaders of parliamentary factions and groups. They must sit down and discuss all the points in dispute, reach a consensus, draw up a coordinated bill, send it to the Constitutional Court, and make the final decision this fall.”
Heorhy KRIUCHKOV , KPU faction:
“It seems to me the president is really inclined to reach an agreement now, although this official draft also contains some excessive demands. He again speaks about the right to dissolve parliament if the latter fails to form a viable majority within a month or if it fails to approve the budget by a certain deadline. Of special importance is the question of electing all bodies of government in the same year, which the president stressed in his address. This is a very successful move on his part. The president threw the ball to the deputies, as if saying: look, I’ve met you halfway, I’ve dropped my proposals about a bicameral parliament, reduced number of Verkhovna Rada deputies, referendums, and all I’m now asking you to do is solve this problem. But how can be solved in practice? That the elections must be held in 2004 is an obligatory condition for us Communists. Parliament will never agree to an early election. The deputies could take a presidential bribe of accepting an extension of their term. But how would society react?”
