New majority coalition in Verkhovna Rada aims to remove Tkachenko, promote reform (01/16/00)

New majority coalition in Verkhovna Rada aims to remove Tkachenko, promote reform

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - National Deputy Leonid Kravchuk on January 13 announced the formation of a majority coalition of center and center-right democratic forces in the Verkhovna Rada and stated that its first assignment would be to remove the current chairman of Parliament.

The coalition, which has dubbed itself the Coordinating Council, includes 11 of the Parliament's 15 political factions and numbers 241 national deputies. In the 450-seat Verkhovna Rada, 226 deputies are needed for a majority.

Mr. Kravchuk, Ukraine's first president, who today is one of the more influential members of the Parliament, said the majority coalition was formed to break the paralysis that has become the hallmark of the legislative branch of government.

"Our primary task will be to return the Verkhovna Rada to constructive work and to rekindle cooperation with the other branches of power," said Mr. Kravchuk. He said the coalition will take responsibility for beginning to move legislation forward, especially in the sphere of economic and administrative reform.

The Verkhovna Rada, elected in March 1998, has been unable to pass any substantial bills on new tax procedures, a criminal and commercial code or on land reform. All efforts have been stopped by the four leftist blocks: the Communist, Socialist, Progressive Socialist and Peasant factions.

Mr. Kravchuk said that in one of its first moves the coalition will propose the removal of Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksander Tkachenko, leader of the Peasant Party, along with his first vice-chairman, Adam Martyniuk, a member of the Communist Party. Mr. Kravchuk said that most of the 250 signatures needed to present the proposal have already been gathered.

"Our patience is at an end, as is the patience of the nation," he explained.

Mr. Tkachenko, who was picked as the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada as a compromise candidate in the summer of 1998 after a four-month stalemate over who would lead the newly elected legislature, has consistently sided with his leftist colleagues during parliamentary voting, even as he has left the impression that he is working with the president.

"He used his position so that today the divisiveness of the Verkhovna Rada has led to a sharp drop in its effectiveness. It has sharpened the conflict between the branches of power," said Mr. Kravchuk.

The former president outlined seven areas in which the coalition would concentrate its efforts immediately. In addition to the effort to oust Mr. Tkachenko, the Coordinating Council will propose changes to the procedures of the Verkhovna Rada, so that all votes must be taken in an open roll call, except where otherwise stated in law or in the Constitution. It will demand that all leadership posts in the Verkhovna Rada be held by the recognized majority, and will submit a bill defining the rights and responsibilities of the opposition.

In addition, the coalition will sign a document of solidarity with the president and the Cabinet of Ministers in which all sides should express the desire to cooperate in order to improve relations. The three branches will then develop a joint list of the draft laws that should be passed immediately, which Mr. Kravchuk said would be reform-related bills.

Finally, the new majority coalition will place a moratorium on bringing issues before the Verkhovna Rada agenda that might "create conflict and transform it once again into a political battlefield," explained Mr. Kravchuk.

The creation of the majority coalition is the culmination of several separate efforts that have taken place in and around the halls of Parliament since President Leonid Kuchma declared just before his re-election that Ukraine needs a parliamentary majority coalition to effectively move on reforms and government reorganization.

Initial efforts were made by faction leaders Mykhailo Syrota of the Workers faction, Viktor Pynzenyk of the Reforms-Congress faction and Yulia Tymoshenko of the Fatherland faction, which over a one-month period expanded to include today's coalition.

Ms. Tymoshenko emphasized that in developing a consensus for a coalition, political ideology was never a part of the formula that the group was trying to advance. "We never took it upon ourselves to develop a single ideology - that would have been quite impossible," said Ms. Tymoshenko.

Mr. Kravchuk, however, said he believes that a sound ideological base exists to unite the 11 factions and the 241 members of the coalition. "We can say that we stand on the ideology of democracy, state-building, independence and the need to make the Parliament effective," explained Mr. Kravchuk.

Whether the coalition can withstand the pressures that will mount if it succeeds in implementing its program, including the internal stresses that will develop when the battle to select a new Parliament leadership begins, is yet to be tested.

Mr. Pynzenyk said the coalition's future is uncertain, given the stormy history of the Verkhovna Rada and its national deputies, and the weak ideological bond that links the group.

"What we have here is an agreement to work to reach compromise agreements on important issues. There are many interests at work here. It is to be seen whether we can maintain this," said Mr. Pynzenyk.

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