Law on elections and failure of implementation instead of adopting the Codes
The sixth “very promising” session of Verkhovna Rada is over. At its beginning, it was stated that it would be the session of codes: the deputies placed on the agenda the adoption of Civil, Criminal, Tax, Budget, Land, and Customs Codes. Among other things, such an intention was aimed at making further steps toward European integration and harmonizing Ukrainian legislation with overall European legal norms. However, it did not happen. First, the session was dominated by the cassette scandal and obvious crisis of the parliamentary majority though many lawmakers would not confirm the existence of any such crisis and there was no evident break in the majority. The session was also characterized by the de facto beginning of the election campaign when the interests of each faction or group prevail over any national ones. During the session, the lawmakers many times refused to vote for amendments to the Constitution consistent with the results of referendum held on 16 April. Only on the last day, January 18, did the Solons agree to set up an interim commission for finalizing the draft on amending the Constitution. People’s Deputy Roman Zvarych, representing the Udovenko’s Rukh, believes that even if one version had been passed, pertaining to the President’s right to terminate the powers of Verkhovna Rada ahead of schedule in the event when it was unable to create the acting majority within one month or if it is incapable of adopting on time the national budget simultaneously with the law on the parliamentary majority and opposition, it would have fundamentally improved the country’s constitutional system. So far, the provisions of last year’s have not been implemented despite the fact that the president insisted they be. The president stated earlier that in such case he would have to take stern measures. The meaning of President’s statement has not been explained yet, but quite a few deputies told The Day that the President obviously was not going to dissolve Verkhovna Rada and hold pre-term elections, because there were no grounds for doing so.
The session produced only a few positive results. Prior to completion of the session this fact was mentioned with regret by Speaker Ivan Pliushch who cannot be suspected of wishing to sabotage essential laws or set the stage for early elections. Incidentally, Pliushch was also Speaker when a pre-term election was held in Ukraine, but then it was a presidential election.
It would be wrong to say that the session was completely ineffectual. On the last day of the session lawmakers finally adopted the law on the election of people’s deputies. This is a fundamentally new law for Ukraine since it is based on proportional representation (the elections must be held according to the lists of political parties, blocs, or associations) with preservation of the 4% barrier. Many deputies, including Speaker Pliushch, leader of the Solidarity fraction Petro Poroshenko, and representatives of Trudova Ukrayina (Labor Ukraine) gave interviews in which they gave their reasons for preservation of the existing mixed proportional-majority system. The reasons were varied: for example, a deputy is more responsible to his/her electors when they vote for him/her and not for a party list. There were also the factors militating against such a system: it is hard to force the deputy, who won the election by supplying gas or cheap foodstuffs to some populated areas, to further bear any political responsibility.
Alexander Zinchenko, representing the faction of Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united), told journalists that his Social Democrats are ready to accept the proportional system and an even higher percentage barrier. According to him, it will be possible to predict further development of the situation within one week when the president either signs the elections law or not. Mr. Zinchenko also mentioned that this issue was open now since everything would be settled within three months by the elections. At present, the most important issue is cooperation.
The seventh parliamentary session will be held when the election campaign is in full swing. It is worth mentioning that, for the first time in the Ukrainian history, it is expected that during the session members will consider the issue of creating a coalition government and relevant amendments in the legislation. However, now lawmakers cannot predict how the future session go and what its results will be. They are also not certain whether the president will sign the new law on elections.
