Parliament elects Prosecutor General, fails to fill committee vacancies
Many lawmakers say key appointments are meaningless before the elections
Last Thursday Ukrainians got a new Prosecutor General in record time, in less than half an hour into parliament’s morning plenary session. Oleksandr Medvedko, the nominee, obtained 303 votes. (On July 5, 2002, parliament endorsed Sviatoslav Piskun as Prosecutor General with 350 votes). Such unanimity among the parliamentarians is striking, even though days before the vote representatives of various parliament factions offered numerous optimistic scenarios. It is especially conspicuous, considering the MPs showed little interest in Medvedko’s person. It looked as though they had formed their opinion of him before the voting.
The nominee for the post of Prosecutor General was given five minutes to address the parliamentarians. But Medvedko had few listeners: even though there was an almost full complement of MPs, for some reason Medvedko got little attention. During his speech they roamed around the hall or busied themselves with personal matters, oblivious to what was happening at the podium. In the meantime, Medvedko anxiously tried to do his best. Judging by the nature of his speech and the zeal with which he pronounced his words, it was clear that he had worked on it for a long time. “I am fully aware of the magnitude of responsibility placed upon me by the fact of my presence at this podium,” the nominee began solemnly. “This time there were more candidates for Prosecutor General that ever before, and I am sincerely grateful to the president for the high trust placed in me,” he continued. After these words Andriy Shkil, who had been calmly discussing something with Our Ukraine members a short distance from the podium, demonstratively turned his back on Medvedko. Apparently, this gesture passed unnoticed by Medvedko.
The commitments undertaken by the new Prosecutor General are hardly original. As could be expected, he promised to complete the investigations of all high-profile cases and send them to the courts; fulfill all commitments to reform the prosecution system, which Ukraine has undertaken before the Council of Europe; and form a special commission to expose and prevent corruption among the highest-ranking officials, etc.
“The Prosecutor General is a procedural figure, which is why he must be apolitical not only by the dictates of the law, but also by conviction,” Medvedko said to round off his speech.
After a sip of water he started to answer questions from the floor. Some of those questions were rather tricky. Yuriy Solomatin asked Medvedko to share his views on the prospects of the parliamentary commission investigating Berezovsky’s alleged involvement in Ukrainian politics. Oleksandr Peklushenko of the Regions of Ukraine faction inquired about his position on the Kolesnikov case, his relations with former Prosecutor General Vasylyev, and the infamous meeting of separatists in Severodonetsk. Levko Lukyanenko ventured into philosophical issues. “Why have 32 Ukrainian sugar refineries been sold for scrap metal?” he asked. Medvedko was unperturbed by these questions, answering them diligently and turning to face the questioner. His answers were very restrained and offered little information. The parliamentarians heard nothing that was new, let alone sensational.
Perhaps his accentuated political neutrality is exactly what is needed now. How else can one explain the fact that the president’s nomination of Medvedko was supported even by those who call themselves oppositionists: the Party of Regions, Communists, and Social Democrats? Surprisingly, only a dozen and a half members of Our Ukraine and only three Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc members supported this nomination.
“What did you expect? They have elected the prosecutor. So what? Would it be better if this tug-of-war had continued? In any case, this appointment is situational and will last only until the elections,” an opposition member said on leaving the hall.
After the successful voting on Medvedko’s nomination the lawmakers tried unsuccessfully to fill parliamentary vacancies in parliament. They failed to elect a new deputy speaker and new heads for the parliamentary committees that recently lost their leaders. A secret balloting procedure was used to elect the deputy speaker, the choice being Volodymyr Zayets of the Social Democrats, Yuriy Kostenko of the Ukrainian People’s Party, or Valeriy Konovaliuk of the People’s Trust faction. However, only 161 lawmakers participated in the secret balloting, which resulted in its nullification.
Before the secret vote the parliamentarians rejected a “package” of candidates for the heads and deputy heads of a number of parliamentary committees. The package consisted of candidates who had received the most votes during the preferential voting for lawmakers who had expressed a wish to occupy leading posts in the committees. The package received only 113 votes. This is no surprise, as none of the proposed candidates had received 226 votes from their colleagues during the preferential voting. The package contained the following candidates: Viktor Slauta (Regions of Ukraine faction) — nominated for chairman of the Committee for State Building and Local Self Governance; Liudmyla Suprun (independent) — head, Budget Committee; Mykhailo Siatynia (faction of the People’s Party) — chairman, Committee on Health, Motherhood, and Childhood; Mykhailo Rodionov (Communist Party) — chairman, Science and Education Committee; Vadym Hurov (faction of the People’s Party) — chairman, Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship Committee; Ihor Shurma (Social Democratic Party) — chairman, Freedom of Speech and Information Committee; Oleh Zarubinsky (faction of the People’s Party) — chairman, European Integration Committee; and Ihor Ostash — chairman, Foreign Affairs Committee (faction of the Reforms and Order Party).
Judging by the lawmakers’ mood, parliament will have to finish its mandate in its current composition. Some parliamentarians even called Thursday’s voting a waste of time, because it took place several months before the elections.
