Verkhovna Rada urges de-certification of Kuchma's candidacy for president (10/03/99)

Verkhovna Rada urges de-certification of Kuchma's candidacy for president

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine's Parliament voted overwhelmingly on September 22 to support a resolution offered by its chairman, Oleksander Tkachenko, to urge election authorities to de-certify President Leonid Kuchma in the upcoming presidential elections.

The motion, carried by a 286-12 vote, came after Mr. Tkachenko, himself a presidential hopeful, led a 90-minute debate on what was described as the president's unconstitutional use of his office in his campaign efforts. The central issue was the repeated refusal of the National Television and Radio Company, which is state-controlled, to allow for live broadcast of a Government Day session of the Parliament, which was to focus on the government's failure to pay back wages and taxes.

The Parliament thrice rescheduled the session, during which Cabinet ministers often are grilled by national deputies over government policy or procedures, to accommodate a live broadcast. Initially the session was scheduled for September 21 and then delayed for a day as negotiations continued between the Parliament leadership and the state broadcast service.

Even after the motion was passed and the Government Day session rescheduled yet again for September 23, the broadcast service continued to refuse a live transmission.

President Kuchma explained on September 27 that the reason for the refusal was limited finances and reasonable certainty that the session would turn into a pre-election political self-promotion.

"Not a single country in the world broadcasts such meetings, as this is taxpayers' money," said Mr. Kuchma. "Why should we spend money to enable the national deputies to advertise themselves?"

Twelve of the 15 presidential candidates are members of Parliament. The Verkhovna Rada's presidium has battled the presidential administration over the right to live radio and television broadcasts of the legislature's daily sessions since spring, when the presidential administration ceased funding for a live radio feed.

Mr. Tkachenko's press secretary, Mykola Kanishevsky, said the basis for the motion is the president's "violation of the constitutional rights and freedoms of Ukrainian citizens, as a result of which the people of Ukraine are deprived of the right to get truthful information about the state of Ukraine's government and the course of the elections."

Mr. Tkachenko also charged that President Kuchma had inappropriately used state funds to finance his campaign and had enlisted the state militia and security services in his re-election effort.

National Deputy Oleksander Eliashkevych, head of the ad hoc parliamentary Committee on Fair Elections, which was tasked with preparing the charges against the president, refused to comment to The Weekly on what form the charges might take or when the final document would go to the Central Election Commission.

Commenting on the motion at a campaign stop in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy the same day, President Kuchma said the motion was politically motivated and based on Mr. Tkachenko's "hysteria and fear" of losing the vote, according to the Associated Press.

"There are no legal grounds for the Central Election Commission to revoke my registration as a presidential candidate," said President Kuchma.

From all indications, the president may have a point. At a press conference on September 27 even Mr. Tkachenko's colleague on the Verkhovna Rada's presidium, Second Vice-Chairman Viktor Medvedchuk, acknowledged that the law on elections does not address the issues that the Rada used as a basis for its call for the revocation of the president's candidacy.

"There is no law on the books that presents objective criteria for a presidential candidate already on the ballot to be removed," explained Mr. Medvedchuk. He said that the law indicates only that a person may be banned from the elections for submitting false information on his financial declaration.

The chairman of the Central Election Commission, Mykola Riabets, said on September 29 that he had not yet received the Verkhovna Rada resolution, and agreed with Mr. Medvedchuk that by law a candidate could be expunged from the election ballot only if he lied about his finances.

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