NOTHING MORE CONSTANT THAN THINGS TEMPORARY? Parliament’s temporary Presidium will be a sure indicator of its leadership

The next meeting of the working group responsible for the preparation of the Verkhovna Rada’s first session surprised everybody not so much by its attempt to consolidate its groups as by the selection of candidates for the temporary presidium: Yuri Kostenko, Anatoly Matviyenko, Oleksandr Moroz, and Petro Symonenko. Another candidate, Pavlo Lazarenko, is still collecting signatures (no one objects to his seat in the presidium except the Progressive Socialists). Most likely, the 30 votes he lacks will be secured from several dozen unaffiliated members who have already proposed to vote for five candidates in a single package.

Incidentally, the working group’s leadership does not rule out the possibility that the temporary presidium will determine the decision-making core of the new Parliament. “Backstage activities are underway even now to elect the Speaker and his Deputies,” says the group’s secretary Ivan Chyzh. He is convinced that the Speaker will be elected without a hitch and that the whole thing will not take over a week. There is the possibility, however, that the temporary presidium will act as leaders of Parliament if the People’s Deputies fail to agree on a Speaker and his Deputies.

The Socialist candidate may be opposed by NDP. In the course of consultations with the SDPU(U), Rukh, and the Greens, the People’s Democrats are trying to prove that they have a strong alliance with the centrists. So far this alliance looks very situational, if anything because neither the SDPU(U) nor the Greens are formally opposed to Moroz’s reelection.

On May 6, after President Kuchma met with the working group, informed sources reported that he had officially agreed to deliver his message to the nation and Parliament at the first session scheduled for May 12.