Lacking support, Kuchma prepares to withdraw his political reform bill (07/20/03)

Lacking support, Kuchma prepares to withdraw his political reform bill

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma announced on July 15 that he was preparing to withdraw his political reform bill from the Constitutional Court after it failed to obtain a majority of support in Ukraine's Parliament during a vote on July 10. Mr. Kuchma also underscored that he would not endorse a similar draft law prepared by the opposition.

"The Parliament does not want to take upon itself the responsibility, that is why they threw it to the Constitutional Court," explained the Ukrainian president, speaking of his political reform proposals. "And for this reason I now state that the presidential proposal - which today encompasses a much broader political field because it has had inputs from various sources - will not be a stumbling block [to political reform]."

The president also quickly rejected any possibility that he might support a similar bill prepared by National Deputy Anatolii Matvienko, chairman of the Sobor Party and a member of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc faction in Parliament, one of three factions that has proclaimed outright opposition to the president. That draft law was prepared as an alternative to Mr. Kuchma's proposals and excluded a stipulation that all Ukrainian elections should take place at the same time.

"If the Parliament wants to continue to proceed with its draft law, then so be it, but this is not truly a parliamentary proposal, it is merely a project of a few parliamentary forces," explained Mr. Kuchma.

The president added that he did not feel the withdrawal of his proposals would spell an end to political reform and said this was done not as recognition of failure on his part, but as an attempt to avoid "deadlock." Mr. Kuchma said that his aides are now studying the legal aspects and grounds for withdrawing a presidential initiative from the Constitutional Court's review.

"The president continues to be ready to remain involved in political reform," concluded Mr. Kuchma. "This is not a victory for the opposition, but a defeat for all. However, we still have some options and this matter is not finished."

The decision to withdraw the president's proposals from the Constitutional Court came after the Verkhovna Rada could muster only 207 of the needed 226 votes on July 10 during a vote in support of the first draft of the president's political reform initiative. The pro-presidential forces had wanted some sort of initial agreement before the summer recess to give momentum to the proposed Constitutional changes as they moved to the Constitutional Court and on to a possible ratification vote in the fall.

The opposition and the pro-presidential forces in the Parliament had battled also over whether the draft bill should undergo scrutiny by the Constitutional Court prior to an initial parliamentary vote or after the rendering of a judicial decision. By failing to get a majority to approve the draft law before sending it to the country's highest constitutional authority, the lawmakers said, in effect, that they wanted the judicial review to come first.

Much of the opposition to the bill was centered on a stipulation that presidential, parliamentary and local elections, which currently are held in varying years, take place on the same date. Some national deputies, including most of the opposition, had voiced concern that if such an amendment were approved, President Kuchma would use it to extend his term by two years by moving back presidential elections to 2006 to coincide with the next scheduled parliamentary elections.

Mr. Kuchma has insisted the measure was needed to cut election costs and limit what sometimes seemed like endless electioneering in Ukraine.

The Matvienko initiative also stated that the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada had the right to move any draft laws that proposed constitutional changes to the Constitutional Court for review prior to a parliamentary vote. In addition, it would transfer from the president to the prime minister the right to appoint oblast chairman, leaving the head of state only the ability to nominate candidates for the posts.

During his July 15 press conference, Mr. Kuchma said the Matvienko bill would render the president a "puppet."

Over the last weeks, Mr. Kuchma and his staff have changed some of what they had originally proposed. Gone is a proposal for a two-tiered parliamentary chamber and gone is a reduction in the number of deputies, which Mr. Kuchma wanted to decrease to 300 from the current 450.

The current version of the president's proposed reforms leaves in place a requirement that a parliamentary majority should appoint a prime minister to head the Ukrainian government and approve the appointment of all ministers except for the four power posts: foreign affairs, internal affairs, defense and procurator general. The president would retain the authority to fill those positions, as well as the right to dismiss the Verkhovna Rada if it could not approve a budget or form a majority within a specific time period. The reforms would also remove the criminal immunity that national deputies currently enjoy.

Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn, who was Mr. Kuchma's chief of staff prior to his election to the Parliament in March 2002, stated his regret that his former boss was not showing more patience with the political processes under way. Mr. Lytvyn said that after constitutional review there would be an opportunity to look for compromise and perhaps develop a consolidated version of the two political reform bills.

"There are a lot of positive elements in his draft that are supported even by the opposition," Mr. Lytvyn observed.

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