Four weeks, four votes, still no chairman (06/07/98)

Four weeks, four votes, still no chairman

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada on June 3 failed for a fourth time to elect a chairman. In session now for almost a month, the newly elected Parliament remains rudderless and has not passed a single law.

The refusal of leftist political factions to agree to a compromise and a boycott by a temporary coalition of centrist political factions has split the legislative body into two camps and brought the process of electing a chairman to a stalemate.

Three times the refusal of four centrist parliamentary factions, Rukh, the National Democrats, the Greens and the Social Democrats (United), to take part in the process has resulted in an insufficient number of ballots cast to pick a leader.

The fourth time, with all factions voting, the Verkhovna Rada still could not come up with the majority needed to elect a chairman. Members of Parliament almost evenly split their votes along ideological lines. Moderate candidate Leonid Kravchuk, Ukraine's first president and the first nominee that many felt had a serious chance for election as the Parliament chairman, fell far short of the 226 needed for election. He was outvoted by Communist leader Petro Symonenko, 176-173. Mr. Symonenko also failed to achieve a majority and has now been an unsuccessful candidate in all four rounds.

Mr. Kravchuk, today a leader of the Social Democrats (United) faction, said after the voting that he was non-plussed by his defeat. "Until we in the Verkhovna Rada go for the proposal put forward by the four factions and sit down and work out a compromise, nothing is going to happen," said Mr. Kravchuk.

Before the first candidates for chairman were nominated three weeks ago, the four centrist factions had put forth a proposal that the chairman should be elected in a package with both deputy chairs. They declared at the time that, until such a proposal was voted upon, they would not take ballots and would not vote for any candidates.

For the first three rounds the temporary coalition of centrist factions stuck to its word.

Backroom maneuvering

Prior to the fourth round, after backroom discussion suggested that Mr. Kravchuk might be able to garner the necessary 226 votes for a majority, two other centrist candidates, Volodymyr Filenko of the National Democratic faction and Ivan Zayets of the Rukh faction, withdrew their candidacies, leaving the legislature with a clear choice: a centrist versus a leftist.

National Deputy Les Taniuk, a member of the Rukh faction, said after an unsuccessful fourth round of voting that the centrist coalition voted in the latest round because the coalition members decided to prove that, even with the full Parliament casting ballots, Mr. Symonenko was not electabl. "It was to show that their leader is not worthy of consideration again," said Mr. Taniuk. "It (this round) shows that Symonenko is not electable."

However, Mr. Taniuk added that indeed the centrist coalition had believed that Mr. Kravchuk just might have the votes to be elected. "We believed that Mr. Kravchuk, who is not from our faction, was a good compromise candidate. He is a positive figure," Mr. Taniuk explained.

National Deputy Roman Zvarych, a fellow member of the Rukh faction, said that after four rounds no consensus exists as to who or how a chairman will get elected. He explained that the only way to elect the leadership is through the package vote that had initially been suggested - a demand to which the four factions will return in the next round of voting. "That is why we went for the package vote from the beginning, for a compromise - because we foresaw that it would be difficult to elect a speaker," said Mr. Zvarych.

Prior to the first round of voting, 14 candidates were nominated, including representatives from the four boycotting factions. When the time came for a vote, national deputies from the centrist coalition did not accept their ballots, and the election was declared null and void.

The first rounds

According to the rules of Parliament, two-thirds of the national deputies must take ballots in order for the election to be valid, and a simple majority (226) of the full body is needed to elect the chairman. Because of the boycott by the centrist factions, only 204 national deputies took part in the May 22 voting, well below the required minimum, and Communist leader Symonenko received 191 votes.

In the second round, on May 26, Mr. Symonenko and two Hromada candidates were nominated by their parties, while two other candidates nominated themselves. With the centrist boycott continuing, Mr. Symonenko again failed to be elected.

In an effort to break the logjam, shake up the process, and determine whether national deputies' loyalties lie with the faction or with individual leaders, factions began nominating outside their membership on May 27 for the third round. Hromada member Oleksander Eliashkevych nominated both Yevhen Marchuk and Ivan Pliushch, leaders of the Social Democrats (United) faction and the National Democratic faction, respectively, while Rukh member Mr. Taniuk threw the names of Socialist faction leader Oleksander Moroz and Hromada leader Pavlo Lazarenko into the ring. Each of the four nominees is considered to have a sufficient power base to be elected.

The final result of the absurd situation was that five of the eight nominated candidates hastily withdrew their names from consideration, again leaving Mr. Symonenko in a run-off, this time with Progressive Socialist faction leader Natalia Vitrenko and a self-nominated candidate, Oleksander Rzhavsky. For a third time the centrist coalition abstained from voting and on May 28 the Verkhovna Rada failed for the third time in a week to elect a leader.

The call by the centrist coalition for a single package vote for the three seats on the Parliament presidium, in addition to allowing room for political maneuvering and compromise, is a political strategy intended to allow representation of all sides of the political spectrum on the parliamentary rostrum and to gain a political advantage in a Parliament that has a simple majority of Communists.

The four parties holding out for a package vote ideally would like for a centrist to chair the Verkhovna Rada, with a representative from the left as the first deputy chair and a member from the democratic right as second deputy chair.

However, the combined leftist forces of the Communist faction and the recently formed Socialist Center faction believe their 165 or so votes, along with 39 votes from the Hromada faction, which had agreed to work with the leftist factions for the election of a chairman, is sufficiently close to the 226 votes needed to elect their candidate and assure them three leadership seats on the dais. Thus, they have decided not to look for a compromise candidate. According to Verkhovna Rada rules, the newly elected chair nominates the deputy chairs.

But the partnership between Hromada and the left is not as certain as had been believed in the first rounds of voting. Mr. Lazarenko, who lately has been meeting with political leaders from across the political spectrum, is looking to broker the deal that will finally elect a chairman, which would give him influence as a kingmaker. The four centrist factions, who have an approximate total of 194 assured votes, have been wooing the Hromada leader. A centrist coalition candidate, if one acceptable to all the parties could be found, would easily go over the top with the 40 votes of the Hromada faction.

In the fourth round of voting, however, the Hromada faction scattered its vote among the political left and center.

"It is their strategy to throw a monkey wrench into the process," said Rukh National Deputy Zvarych. "It allows them to raise the stakes, to become the kingmaker. The longer they draw out the process, the stronger their position becomes."

Communist faction leader Petro Symonenko, in his presentation after he was nominated for the chairmanship for the third time on May 28, accused the centrist coalition of blocking the election. He said the political stalemate in the Ukrainian Parliament is a move by the Kuchma administration to strengthen presidential rule. "Our political opponents cannot come to terms with the political success that we achieved in the elections," said Mr. Symonenko.

However, National Deputy Kravchuk dismissed any notion that the coalition of four factions is intransigent and that it is not seeking a compromise candidate.

"We could agree to nominate a candidate for the single post of chairman. But we would need specific assurances on who the chairman would propose for the deputy chairs," said Mr. Kravchuk. "We need to sit down together and not let ambition get in the way of hammering out a compromise. If [the left bloc] thinks it can get the necessary votes, then they should show us."

He said that, contrary to accusations by Mr. Symonenko, it is the left bloc that is stalling by its unwillingness to compromise. "They want to take this to an absurd level to show that the democratic system does not work," said Mr. Kravchuk.

After four defeats, the political left still has not declared that it is willing to look for a compromise candidate or to vote for the presidium as a package. However, it still has one card unturned, which many here believe will be played in the next round. The previous Verkhovna Rada chairman, Mr. Moroz, who has been uncharacteristically quiet as the political gamesmanship has led to paralysis, is still considered a possible nominee, all the more so as the process draws on without end in sight.

However, he will not find much support from the democratic center, according to two Rukh national deputies. "Maybe next time, Moroz, who is more wily than Symonenko, will be nominated. But if either Moroz, or Symonenko is nominated, we will return to the package vote issue," said Mr. Taniuk.

Mr. Zvarych was even more candid: "Voting for Moroz would be voting for a paralyzed Parliament at least until October 1999. It would become a pre-presidential election circus."

Mr. Moroz is widely considered to be preparing to run against President Leonid Kuchma in the presidential elections in 1999.

Mr. Zvarych said he believes that no one will be elected for another two rounds, at the least, and only after the legislative body is ready to seek compromise. "If you accept that the Parliament is paralyzed, divided into two camps, then you see the need to find the mechanism to seek a compromise. We think the package vote is the vehicle."