On the Law of One City and Its Boss

On the eve of this, Kyiv former Mayor Ivan Saliy, who has the text of the bill before it was signed by the President, told The Day there were changes in Articles 7 and 13, of which our newspaper had also been informed before by People's Deputy Oleksandr Lavrynovych.

Nevertheless Mr. Saliy said that the law passed is better than no law at all. In his opinion, Kyiv "is not completely, but to an extent, a city," but from the viewpoint of the working people's interests and Kyiv itself, the law's first version vetoed by the President was better.

Earlier, the Presidential Press Service stated that Leonid Kuchma had made certain that the law submitted to him for signature was authentic, for it had been signed on the last page by Verkhovna Rada Speaker Oleksandr Tkachenko, Chairman of the Committee for State-Building, Local Government, and Councils Oleksandr Kushnir, his deputy Boris Andresiuk, and Verkhovna Rada's Chief of Protocol, reports Interfax-Ukraine.

Elections of the Kyiv mayor were to have taken place simultaneously with those of Parliament on March 29, 1998. However, they were canceled by the Constitutional Court due to absence of a law on the capital. There were 14 contenders for the post then, including Oleksandr Omelchenko, Leonid Kosakivsky, Ivan Saliy, Serhiy Holovaty, and Valery Babych. Last week Kyiv Administration Chairman Omelchenko suggested elections be held March 28.

Mr. Saliy, who has not yet made a final decision about running for mayor ("this will depend on the date of elections, who the candidates are, and what the atmosphere will be"), commented on this suggestion: "This is not the way to treat Kyivans and the candidates. One must create at least a semblance of elections. If the elections are still held on March 28, they will pivot around one candidate, Mr. Omelchenko." Another probable candidate, Mr. Holovaty, also said that March 28 is an unrealistic date.

Mr. Omelchenko also voiced his opinion on the law and the elections. He said at one of his most recent press conferences that "there cannot be an ideal law in the whole world, let alone this country." Answering a question about his participation in the mayoral elections, he said that even if he ran for office, he would not spend public money to advertise himself and again laid special emphasis on the election date.

AS WE GO TO PRESS

The Day's parliamentary corespondent Vyacheslav Yakubenko reports that the attempt of Verkhovna Rada deputies to put an item about fixing the elections of Kyiv mayor for April 4 on the session agenda was supported by only sixty Deputies.