Parliament turmoil stalls debate on new constitution of Ukraine (06/02/96)

Parliament turmoil stalls debate on new constitution of Ukraine

by Marta Kolomayets
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The inability of the Ukrainian Parliament to begin debate on the new draft constitution has led the country into political turmoil, causing chaos within the chambers of the legislature on May 28-29.

Many national-democratic deputies blame Parliament Chairman Oleksander Moroz for the current critical situation, accusing him of trying to thwart the constitutional process and demanding that he step down as head of the Supreme Council.

Serhiy Sobolyev, leader of the Reforms faction, has blamed Mr. Moroz for "incompetent guidance of Supreme Council deliberations."

Mr. Moroz defended himself in the Parliament on May 29, stating that he was trying to be "fair and impartial," but he did not gain the sympathy of any of the democratic factions in Parliament, who hold him responsible for not being able to secure a quorum for the long-awaited debate on the constitution.

"He has systematically violated constitutional norms and rules of procedure in the legislature and has not been able to organize effective work in the Parliament," said Mr. Sobolyev, after the legislature failed to register a quorum of 278 deputies to begin discussing the draft constitution on May 28.

Left-wing and centrist deputies also tried to "amend the rules of procedure," noted Vyacheslav Chornovil, the head of the Rukh faction in Parliament, explaining that these deputies tried to "dilute" the procedure and pass the constitution in both readings by a qualified majority instead of a constitutional majority, taking away from the meaning of such an important document.

Despite repeated tries on May 29, only 270 had registered for the session, and Mr. Moroz was forced to postpone the plenary session until June 4.

Ukraine, which celebrates five years as an independent state on August 24, is the only one of the former Soviet republics without a new constitution. Various draft projects were presented in 1992 and 1993, but not until the end of 1994 - under President Leonid Kuchma - was a Constitutional Committee, composed of all political forces in society, formed.

Once the Constitutional Committee developed a draft project, a working committee continued consolidating the document and fine-tuning the draft. It was finally presented to Parliament by President Kuchma and Chairman Moroz during a grand ceremony in March, with the idea that Parliament would review it and pass it as the fundamental law of the land.

But when it came time to review the document, left-wing forces demanded that the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR be considered as a draft project as well. As a matter of compromise, the Parliament Presidium suggested that a new ad hoc parliamentary committee be formed, consisting of members of all the factions in the Supreme Council.

After six weeks of work, including resolving differences between the various factions (the Communist representatives walked out of ad hoc meetings, sometimes joined by the Socialist and Agrarian Party representatives), the final draft was presented for approval to President Kuchma last week. On May 28, Mykhailo Syrota (Center faction), the head of the ad hoc committee, presented an hourlong report on the final version to his colleagues in Parliament, outlining the changes and additional articles on human and civil rights, the justice system, the Crimea, self-government and the structure of the legislature.

But it was at this point that cooperation among the various forces in Parliament came to an end. Serhiy Hmyria, a representative of the Communist faction, presented an alternative draft authored by his party. During the evening session, leftist deputies demanded that the debate over the drafts be postponed until June so that they could "consult with their constituencies."

Most democrats see this as a delay tactic by the left-wing forces who are counting on Communists coming to power in Russia during June's presidential elections.

Ukraine's citizens see this as a calamity. Ukrainian state television pre-empted regular programming to show the turmoil in the Parliament hall on May 28, as deputies charged the podium, threatened each other with nasty words, and Communists refused to register and walked out of the hall in order to disrupt the session.

If the stand-off continues, said Volody-myr Scherban, a deputy from Donetske and leader of the Liberal Party, President Kuchma "may dissolve the Parliament."

Les Taniuk of the Rukh faction commented, "We've had to postpone discussion of the constitution once, twice, three times. If the left-wing forces continue these tactics three or four more times, the president will be forced to dissolve the Parliament. Now, we all know that they are not that stupid. They don't want to lose their cushy seats."

But not all deputies think this current crisis will lead to such drastic actions. Most, including Mr. Syrota, admit that there are difficulties in the Parliament, but agree that an understanding will be reached.

Oleksander Steshenko of the Communist faction cautioned that if the president takes such drastic action as dissolving the Parliament, he "would bury the state."

Some national democratic deputies see another way out of the current crisis. Deputies such as Yaroslav Kendzior (Rukh faction) are convinced that the draft constitution presented by the ad hoc committee can be passed by simple majority (209 votes) in the first reading and then it can be brought to a national referendum, instead of having to go through a second reading in Parliament, which would require a two-thirds majority vote.

"This would also show that President Kuchma is a decisive leader," said Mr. Kendzior.

"Already there has been talk of a referendum on September 8," said Ihor Ostash of the Reforms faction, adding that democratic deputies have started collecting signatures to present to President Kuchma, urging him to call a referendum.

"We also have to consolidate our own democratic forces; we can gather 278 deputies to begin discussing the draft," explained Mr. Kendzior, adding that a whole group of deputies was traveling abroad instead of taking part in this constitutional debate. "We have to put a moratorium on these trips if we want to get the constitution passed," he said.

"They are not serious deputies when they decide to travel out of the country at such a responsible time," he added.

"When we come back to work on June 4, we will have two issues to tackle," explain-ed Mykola Zhulynsky, a member of the Center faction. "We must not only pass the constitution in the first reading, but we must also vote for the resignation of Oleksander Moroz as Parliament chairman. He must be held personally responsible for the fact that Parliament is now undergoing a political crisis.

"I have always said that politics is the art of compromise between real politicians, and we are to show that we are real politicians we will find a compromise," he added.

"Unfortunately, it seems to me that the left-wing forces are just plain old Bolsheviks, the kind who were always guided by the slogan: the worst things are, the better they are," Mr. Zhulynsky noted.

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