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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

SPEAKER’S ELECTION: EVERYTHING ACCORDING TO PLAN

13 November, 2012 - 00:00

Contrary to some expectations, the Verkhovna Rada came close to electing its Speaker last Friday.

One could notice that the four factions - NDP, Rukh, SDP(U), and the Greens - previously avowing to torpedo the vote on package arrangements about Parliament’s leadership were not happy about the turn of events. They expected the election to take place on Tuesday. The time-out allowed to negotiate the situation and avoid a dead-end. The Left, however, showed that pressuring them was not effective. Not yet. They guided the process as they saw fit; they wanted to let their opponent to show his worth - and weak spots.

The voting began at 3 p.m. After the expected withdrawals five candidates remained in place of 14 and were entered in the ballots: Petro Symonenko (CPU), Oleksandr Yeliashkevych, Mykhailo Pavlovsky (both of Hromada), and the self-nominees Oleksandr Rzhavsky and Mykola Kovach. Everyone realized that at this stage the watchword was not victory but participation.

The four dissident factions took no ballots, therefore the vote was canceled for want of two-thirds of the membership required under the standing orders.

When asked what would happen next, Oleksandr Moroz told journalists: “The standing orders envisage a gradual approximation technique. There will be a runoff, then another nomination if need be, and so on.”

Remarkably, Hromada is the only political force in Parliament that can tip the scales Left or Right (both stand roughly equal chances), because it controls 53 seats. In other words, the crucial bidding is still to come.

 

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