Parliament Braced for “Plastic Surgery”

It has not been ruled out that the redistribution of parliamentary committees in favor of the majority will be put to a vote this coming Thursday, People’s Democratic Party faction leader Valery Pustovoitenko said on October 11. In his opinion, the majority’s coordination board has made a political decision to this effect. According to Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, it is necessary to redistribute committees because some parliamentary committee heads refuse to report on the bills proposed, thus obstructing the work of parliament. So it is probable that the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada will show a totally different face by the end of this week. At the same time, many analysts think that it is too early to say whether redistribution of the committees is a foregone conclusion. The point is not only if the majority will muster sufficient strength to put down the resistance of the minority which, naturally, is not interested in losing the portfolios. Before putting forward a motion, the “majors” must reach an inner compromise about how to distribute the committees among the nine factions. It would be naive to hope that this kind of compromise will be worked out quickly and painlessly, for each of the factions has interests and candidatures of its own. SDPU (o) faction leader Leonid Kravchuk believes that the majority could reach an agreement on committee redistribution, adding that this is now the subject of a heated debate. In his words, majority faction leaders “are aware of the necessity of coming into the session room with agreed-upon decisions”. At the same time, as nothing concrete has been said about the personalities and factions to which it is planned to hand over one committee or another, it is quite logical to suppose that this decision still requires a great effort. It can be predicted that the budgetary committee will be the biggest stumbling block, as it was the last time. And the majority seems to understand all the seriousness of this problem. According to Oleksandr Zadorozhny, permanent representative of the President of Ukraine in parliament, in the course of consultations each of the factions laying claim to the budgetary committee said it was prepared to waive its pretensions so as not to obstruct the committee’s proceedings during the ongoing budget- adoption process. On his part, Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn called into question the necessity of replacing the current budgetary committee head. Whether this means that the speaker admits the possibility of this committee being retained by the minority is a rhetorical question. Not so long ago, Petro Poroshenko, the current budgetary committee chair, was deputy head of a majority party. But when he, Viktor Yushchenko’s trusted lieutenant, was put “in charge of the budget”, some Our Ukraine members gossiped in the corridors that this was tantamount to the cession of the committee to United Ukraine. Speaking of the committee redistribution as a whole, Mr. Lytvyn stressed that, “if we take pure arithmetic into account” and the readiness of the majority to assume responsibility for the performance of parliament, “everything is very good there”. On the other hand, in his words, one must think over how to ensure trouble-free and stable work of parliament. Mr. Lytvyn believes both sides should make concessions to avoid aggravation of the situation as a result of committee redistribution.

Another important issue the majority is going to address later this week is the formation of a coalition government. It looks like there will be even more questions here. The main question mark is the future premier. Will the present incumbent, Anatoly Kinakh, remain behind or will an alternative candidature be suggested? The majority still has several points of view, although many are inclined to see the premier unchanged. One more fundamental question is: what is the point in Cabinet reshuffles if the overwhelming majority of ministers still belong, this way or another, to the forces that represent the majority?

This week’s results will naturally depend on the attitude of not only the majority but also the minority — in particular, on the way the opposition factions behave on Thursday, the day of voting. It looks like not only many opposition faction members but also their leaders have begun to understand the futility of vote-boycotting tactics. Following the meeting of the leaders of parliamentary factions and groups with Verkhovna Rada Speaker V. Lytvyn, the representatives of three factions, SPU, KPU and Our Ukraine, announced they intended — in a different way though, to dismiss the idea of a vote boycott. For example, in the words of the KPU faction member Adam Martyniuk, the Communists consider it necessary “to observe the Constitutional law and procedure, and each people’s deputy must take a personal part in voting”. He also stressed that the Communist faction would work within the limits of the Constitution, the current law and procedural rules, and is ready to support the social- oriented and other bills.