President Sees Preconditions for Transition to New Stage of State Building

President Leonid Kuchma in his annual address to Verkhovna Rada stated that “both the objective and subjective preconditions have formed in the country for transition to a qualitatively new stage of state building, the major goal of which should be the reform of the political system on the basis of cementing the democratic fundamentals for the development of society.” In the address, printouts of which were handed out to deputies on March 13, the president maintains that the all-Ukrainian referendum in April 2000 “provided legal precedents for taking basic measures to increase the working capabilities and efficiency of the authorities; however, excessive politicization in the work of parliament, the aspirations of some deputies to use the results of the referendum in violation of the Constitution to redistribute the authority of the branches of government, has brought the implementation process to the verge of collapse.”

In his address Mr. Kuchma stated that as of March 1, 2001 the number of political parties in Ukraine reached 110. “The president’s stand consists in the fact that the state has to facilitate the activity of parties notwithstanding their attitude toward the authorities, however only of the ones that are actually mass parties and represent the interests of large social groups, and act in line with the Constitution and laws of Ukraine,” the document says.

Leonid Kuchma believes “the most acceptable and best option” for holding parliamentary elections in the year 2002 is on the basis of the acting, ‘preliminary amendment’,” which envisions the mixed, majority-proportional election system, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

“The major criterion for evaluating the election system is its compliance with social realities. In Ukraine, where political parties are weak, encompass an insignificant segment of the population, and do not enjoy adequate trust, the introduction of the proportional election system would mean sacrificing the citizens’ expression of their will to party interests and politicians’ ambitions,” the address says.