Top Court Quashes President’s Call for Early Elections in Ukraine
Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko had called for early parliamentary elections by May after months of battling with the Rada on several fronts, including defections within the opposition. His 11th-hour decree, however, was not met with the same enthusiasm by the members of Ukraine’s constitutional court
MosNews has more on the ruling by Ukraine’s top court . . .
Early elections came into the spotlight after President Viktor Yushchenko signed a decree to dissolve parliament and set snap elections for May 27, following the defection of 11 opposition members to the ruling coalition in parliament, the Supreme Rada.
“There can be no elections May 27,” Oleksandr Lavrynovych said, adding that the court ruling could not be appealed.
While the Constitutional Court of Ukraine continues to review the presidential decree, members of the ruling coalition, the opposition, the Cabinet and the president’s secretariat have gathered for political consultations on early parliamentary elections.
The ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych has vehemently opposed fresh elections and refused to obey the presidential decree until the Constitutional Court announces its ruling expected by April 27. | Read more…
Meanwhile, negotiations on early parliamentary are underway between the opposition and ruling factions within the Rada
On the day that many political factions in the Rada are meeting to discuss early parliamentary elections, President Yushchenko reaffirmed his call for them to work out an agreement on the matter. REGNUM has more . . .
Today, political consultations are planned to be held at the Ukrainian presidential secretariat between parliamentary opposition and coalition members, press office of the Ukrainian president told a REGNUM correspondent.
The opposition is represented by Our Ukraine bloc leader Vyacheslav Kirilenko, deputy head of Timoshenko’s bloc Alexander Turchinov, and MPs Nikolai Onishchuk and Iosif Vinsky. On behalf of the coalition, coordinator of the parliamentary majority Raissa Bogatyryova, first deputy chair of the parliament Adam Martynyuk, KPU leader Pyotr Simonenkoamd MPs Sergey Matviyenkov and Mikhail Teplyuk. Besides, members of the Cabinet of Ministers and the presidential secretariat are taking part in the meeting.
President Viktor Yushchenko before starting his work visit to Kiev Region called upon the participants to come to agreements about early parliamentary elections.
Pavel Korduban over at Eurasia Daily Monitor has more on the prospect for a compromise among the Rada’s divided factions.
The catfight drags on: Yanukovych says, uncompromisingly, that compromise is the only option
Led by Yushchenko’s archrival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, political turmoil in Ukraine has wracked a government that has largely devolved into a struggling patchwork of political factions since its historic Orange Revolution, which culminated with Yushchenko’s inauguration in January 2005.
Yanukovych told Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday that political dialogue is the only way to solve the current political crisis and that he will not let this political division get in the way of continuing Ukraine’s democratic reforms. Yanukovych also reiterated his contention that Yushchenko’s attempt to bypass political dialogue through his decree of early elections is illegal and will yield nothing but continued political strife.
“Despite the result of negotiations, I am sure that the current political crisis will make Ukraine more democratic state the fundamental principles of which are law supremacy, freedom, adherence to human rights. Reforms of the judiciary system and law-enforcement bodies are unalterable as well,” the PM said.
Answering questions on probable, to his mind, reasons of the President for signing Decree on the Parliament’s dissolution, the Prime Minister noted “If President Viktor Yushchenko wanted to hold pre-term elections by illegal, coercive way (the result of which could be easily foreseen taking into consideration numerous sociological polls), then we can unambiguously say that he deliberately violated the Constitution, taking into account the methods of coercive pressure”.
“If the President reckoned that signing decree would make the coalition of national unity pay attention to their position on many issues of the interior and foreign policy, including redistribution of authorities between the branches of power then achieving this goal is possible only through a political dialogue,” Viktor Yanukovych stressed. | Read more…
There is skepticism that fresh elections would yield a more favorable result for Yushchenko
Some political insiders have insisted that not much would come from early elections. They point to disillusionment among the electorate, while others maintain that any election will prove more risky for a divided opposition and an increasingly unpopular president.
Opinion polls consistently show a fresh election, whose date remains uncertain, would probably not bring considerable changes in the balance of forces in parliament, and it would give Yanukovich the chance to renew his legitimacy in the eyes of voters.
But radical opposition leader Yuliya Timoshenko is confident she will at least increase her share of power in the legislative branch, at the expense of the more moderate Our Ukraine Party of President Yushchenko. For the latter, a presidential vote could also prove catastrophic in view of his very low approval rate.
The President and the main parties represented in parliament have vowed to respect the Court’s ruling, with the exception of Timoshenko who claims the court is “corrupt”, “biased” and “illegitimate”. Timoshenko announced that regardless of the court’s ruling her MPs would renounce their seats thus making the parliament “illegitimate”.
Yet some of Timoshenko’s MPs, such as former deputy prime minister Mykola Tomenko, have criticised her methods and oppose the early election, warning that the opposition’s electorate is too indifferent and disillusioned. | Read more…
The top court’s ruling is just another blow to the hope for a vibrant democracy that eminated following the Orange Revolution.
We posted about what has been cynically-termed as Ukraine’s ‘Orange Devolution’ back in December. Here is an excerpt from that post . . .
When Victor Yushchenko took the reins as Ukraine’s president on the heels of the country’s Orange Revolution, the West pointed to this historic occasion as proof that his country was ready to move beyond the shadow of its former Soviet image. Democracy and Western integration was suppose to spread like a virus throughout Ukraine’s countryside, while walling off countervailing influences to the East through membership in such clubs as NATO and the WTO. Ukraine’s Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, the man Yushchenko defeated in a presidential election that marked departure from its post-Communist past, has re-emerged not only as a clear and formidable rival to Ukraine’s Orange Revolutionaries, but is now in the driver’s seat of Ukraine’s parliament. | Read more…
More about Near|Abroad.
