Parliament paralyzed by the bank issue

Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn made a number of desperate but futile attempts to put the National Bank’s leadership replacement issue to the vote in the first half of Tuesday, December 17, following routine procedures. There were 231 ayes for placing the issue on Tuesday’s agenda, but when it came to voting, the Thursday scenario was acted out. The opposition blocked the podium, Rada software was again threatened, the speaker adjourned the session, and so on. This was repeated several times and at one point Volodymyr Lytvyn seemed about to grapple with Oleksandr Turchynov breathing down his neck. In the end, seeing that a compromise with the opposition was impossible, the majority decided to vote outside the parliamentary audience, using their registered ballots. The decision was made by collecting signatures. 229 deputies gave their ayes. Under that same resolution a new returning board was formed, made up of majority people’s deputies. The deputies were proposed to vote on several issues: dismissal of NBU head Volodymyr Stelmakh, his replacement by Serhiy Tyhypko, reallocation of the VR committees in the majority’s favor, and cancellation of the vote on the 2002 budget bill. As was to be expected, the opposition called their bluff. Communist Valentyn Matveyev, chairman of the standing orders committee, announced the whole thing unlawful in the VR audience. Even now it is safe to assume that the majority has practically all parliamentary levers to carry out any changes. At the same time, it does not have parliament securely under control, relying on a reserve of some five votes. This, in turn, implies that the opposition will continue to block the lawmaking process. And there is yet another danger: legal hitches in the NBU and VR committees’ leadership replacement proceedings. In other words, the illegitimacy accusations will hang over the new appointees like the sword of Damocles. Anyway, the opposition will do its best to make the majority play the legal and propaganda rules by its rules.

Serhiy Tyhypko, meanwhile, is convinced that he was elected to the post in a perfectly legitimate way: “No proceedings can be more legitimate than collecting signatures.”