Verkhovna Rada to extend session (07/27/97)

Verkhovna Rada to extend session

Chairman expects new election law by September 20

by Khristina Lew
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - In an unusual move, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada on July 18 decided to prolong the work of its seventh session until August 2, recess for three weeks, and conclude its current convocation on August 28-29. The eighth session is due to convene on September 2.

On July 18, scheduled to be the last working day of the current session of Parliament, national deputies ratified the European Convention on Human Rights and the State Border Agreement between Ukraine and Belarus, and passed a law on state support for the mass media. The lawmakers worked in committee the week of July 21 and are scheduled to work in their electoral districts the week of July 28. The closing days of the session will be devoted to amending the Constitution and reviewing the election law.

During its seventh session, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada held 135 plenary sessions, passed 106 laws - 62 of which dealt with economic policy - and ratified close to 30 international treaties and agreements. It failed to pass a new law on parliamentary elections, which according to the Constitution are scheduled for the last Sunday of March 1998.

Summarizing the legislative work of the Parliament's seventh session, Chairman Oleksander Moroz, a member of the Socialist Party, said it would be remembered as "the session of the budget." The Verkhovna Rada had deliberated the 1997 budget for seven months, finally passing it on June 27.

According to the chairman, among the most important laws passed by the seventh session are laws on the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, city administrations, the State Property Fund and amnesty.

He told a press conference on July 18 that prolonging the mandate of national deputies for one more year, a proposal put forth by President Leonid Kuchma on June 27 during a Constitution Day policy address, is not on the agenda for August 28-29. He added, however, that if the signatures of 150 deputies are submitted prior to the close of the session, the issue would be discussed.

Mr. Moroz reiterated that he is against prolonging the mandate of national deputies by postponing the parliamentary elections scheduled for next March. He did say, however, that he supports amending the Constitution to extend national deputies' terms from the current four years to five.

The chairman admitted that deliberations over a new election law had confounded the work of the seventh session. National deputies have been debating whether to adopt a majoritarian or a mixed system of elections. A majoritarian system would elect national deputies by geographic district. A mixed system would elect one portion of deputies by district and the other by political party. The party would then designate who would sit in the Parliament.

Mr. Moroz maintained that the election law would be passed by September 20.

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