Donetsk Oblast Chairman Yanukovych approved as Ukraine's prime minister (11/24/02)

Donetsk Oblast Chairman Yanukovych approved as Ukraine's prime minister

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Viktor Yanu-kovych took the reins of Ukraine's 10th government since independence on November 21 after receiving solid support for his appointment as prime minister from a recently formed and previously untested pro-presidential parliamentary majority.

Mr. Yanukovych, 52, chairman of the Donetsk Oblast, which is Ukraine's most populous oblast and until earlier this year was a bedrock of Communist support, received a solid majority of 234 votes - almost entirely from the pro-presidential parliamentary majority. While the four factions that remain in opposition to the policies of President Leonid Kuchma stood on the sidelines in solidarity against the appointment as they had announced they would - only two of their lawmakers supported the vote - the parliamentary majority voted in unanimity in support of the new prime minister.

"I understand that the government and the Parliament need to work very effectively," stated Mr. Yanukovych after the vote. "The number that appeared on the screen, however, shows that a true majority exists and there is support for it in the Parliament. For this reason, I have great hope that the new government together with the Parliament will do what is needed for the country."

With eight more votes than the required 226 needed for a majority, Mr. Yanukovych should have a small amount of latitude in passing legislation in a Parliament that will remain fractious, if only because the parliamentary majority consists of a large number of businessmen with competing interests.

And while he did not receive the 250-plus votes that Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn had predicted earlier in the week, it was, nonetheless, a victory for him and those political leaders who have pushed for a parliamentary majority, which includes President Kuchma who nominated Mr. Yanukovych on November 16.

President Kuchma's press secretary, Olena Hromnytska, said after the vote that the president was very happy with "the well-coordinated work of the new parliamentary majority."

The vote came after intensive discussions between Mr. Yanukovych and the various parliamentary factions of the Verkhovna Rada who met with him separately over the course of the four days prior to the vote.

In remarks before the parliamentary session hall prior to the vote, Mr. Yanukovych said his aim in taking the reins of the government was to continue government and economic reform, including finally developing and passing a new tax code.

"The point is not simply decentralization of authority, but also the empowerment of the regions," explained Mr. Yanukovych.

He added that where Ukraine lacked financial resources it needed to utilize its intellectual capacity "to be innovative in our approach to problem solving."

After the vote, National Deputy Oleksander Moroz, who is chairman of the Socialist Party and along with National Deputy Yulia Tymoshenko is a leader of the Kuchma opposition, dismissed Mr. Yanukovych's hopeful words and voiced deep concern over what his leadership of the government would bring.

"The Donetsk region is a microcosm of Ukraine, and Yanukovych is a Kuchma figure at that level," said Mr. Moroz.

Mr. Yanukovych replaces Anatolii Kinakh, who headed the Ukrainian government since May 2001. While few believed that Mr. Kinakh would last long in his post after the new parliamentary majority was formed in June, the longer no changes in government occurred the stronger his position appeared as presidential elections loomed ever closer.

Early contenders for the post of prime minister, which President Kuchma had originally hoped the parliamentary majority would find the consensus to propose on its own, were Mr. Kinakh, Mr. Yanukovych, Mykola Azarov, director of the State Tax Administration and National Deputy Serhii Tyhypko, leader of the Labor Ukraine faction in Parliament.

However, extended political discussions between Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine political bloc and the Party of Regions, where Mr. Yanukovych is a leading member, over uniting political forces in the Parliament resulted in the first public statements in the press about a month ago that President Kuchma would look for a consensus among the parliamentary majority to appoint the Donetsk Oblast chairman as the new prime minister. Many in the pro-presidential camp were concerned that a union between Messrs. Yanukovych and Yushchenko could have led to the dissolution of the fragile parliamentary majority.

In announcing his dismissal of Mr. Kinakh on November 16, President Kuchma said that Mr. Kinakh had failed to find ways to generate more revenue for the government to increase wages and pensions, and provide accessible medical care. Mr. Kinakh had not been able to move a long overdue tax code to the parliamentary floor and more recently had problems in getting a budget for 2003 approved. In general, Mr. Kinakh was considered an efficient but soft-handed leader.

Mr. Yanukovych, a burly man with a robust personality and a domineering attitude, is given accolades for putting Donetsk back on the economic map of Ukraine and strengthening its political ties with Kyiv after the assassination of National Deputy Yevhen Scherban in 1996 and the decimation of the political and economic clan he led. Mr. Yanukovych replaced Mr. Scherban's relative, Volodymyr Scherban, as Donetsk Oblast chairman in May 1997.

He was criticized by both the left and right fringes of Ukraine's political establishment for keeping a tight rein over political campaigning and the election process in the Donetsk region in the March 31 parliamentary elections. As a result, the Communist Party was defeated in Donetsk for the first time ever in what previously had been a Communist haven of political support.

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