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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

On the Law of One City and Its Boss

9 February, 1999 - 00:00

By Tetiana SHULHACH, The Day
Last week Verkhovna Rada instructed the Committee on Rules and Deputies'
Ethics to check whether the law on the capital of Ukraine passed in the
hall differs from the one signed by the leadership of Parliament and the
country.

On the eve of this, Kyiv former Mayor Ivan Saliy, who has the text of
the bill before it was signed by the President, told The Day there
were changes in Articles 7 and 13, of which our newspaper had also been
informed before by People's Deputy Oleksandr Lavrynovych.

Nevertheless Mr. Saliy said that the law passed is better than no law
at all. In his opinion, Kyiv "is not completely, but to an extent, a city,"
but from the viewpoint of the working people's interests and Kyiv itself,
the law's first version vetoed by the President was better.

Earlier, the Presidential Press Service stated that Leonid Kuchma had
made certain that the law submitted to him for signature was authentic,
for it had been signed on the last page by Verkhovna Rada Speaker Oleksandr
Tkachenko, Chairman of the Committee for State-Building, Local Government,
and Councils Oleksandr Kushnir, his deputy Boris Andresiuk, and Verkhovna
Rada's Chief of Protocol, reports Interfax-Ukraine.

Elections of the Kyiv mayor were to have taken place simultaneously
with those of Parliament on March 29, 1998. However, they were canceled
by the Constitutional Court due to absence of a law on the capital. There
were 14 contenders for the post then, including Oleksandr Omelchenko, Leonid
Kosakivsky, Ivan Saliy, Serhiy Holovaty, and Valery Babych. Last week Kyiv
Administration Chairman Omelchenko suggested elections be held March 28.

Mr. Saliy, who has not yet made a final decision about running for mayor
("this will depend on the date of elections, who the candidates are, and
what the atmosphere will be"), commented on this suggestion: "This is not
the way to treat Kyivans and the candidates. One must create at least a
semblance of elections. If the elections are still held on March 28, they
will pivot around one candidate, Mr. Omelchenko." Another probable candidate,
Mr. Holovaty, also said that March 28 is an unrealistic date.

Mr. Omelchenko also voiced his opinion on the law and the elections.
He said at one of his most recent press conferences that "there cannot
be an ideal law in the whole world, let alone this country." Answering
a question about his participation in the mayoral elections, he said that
even if he ran for office, he would not spend public money to advertise
himself and again laid special emphasis on the election date.

AS WE GO TO PRESS

The Day's parliamentary corespondent Vyacheslav Yakubenko reports
that the attempt of Verkhovna Rada deputies to put an item about fixing
the elections of Kyiv mayor for April 4 on the session agenda was supported
by only sixty Deputies.

 

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