Kuchma announces support for a new package of Constitutional changes (08/31/03)

Kuchma announces support for a new package of Constitutional changes

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine's Leonid Kuchma confirmed on August 26 that he could support a political system in which a Ukrainian president was elected by its Parliament.

Mr. Kuchma's comments came two days after the president made a turn in his political reform push, when he announced during an Independence Day speech on August 24 that he was near agreement with a cross section of parliamentary factions - including those in opposition - on a new package of proposed constitutional changes.

"For me the main point is to reach agreement on the fundamental issue upon which the reforms were initiated, that is, on the principle that the government would be formed by a coalition of parliamentary factions and lawmaker groupings," explained Mr. Kuchma during an hour-long speech before a hall filled with his supporters and government officials.

"It is this principle that guarantees government responsibility before society for its success or lack of success. It is the compromise achieved on this between the various political groupings that is most important to me in my support for this coordinated draft law," added Mr. Kuchma.

National Deputy Oleksander Moroz, leader of the Socialist faction in the Verkhovna Rada announced on August 21 that his party had met with the president and representatives of his administration during much of August and were close to agreement on a political reform draft bill that could lead to constitutional amendments. Mr. Moroz explained that the president had dropped demands that presidential elections and ones to the Verkhovna Rada take place simultaneously and that the president reserved the right to make appointments to the most powerful ministerial posts. Opposition forces had most vehemently opposed these two points of the president's original reform plan.

Mr. Moroz said that in the new coordinated draft law, the president would have the right to appoint only his defense minister and his foreign minister, while the prosecutor general, security services head and internal affairs minister would be approved by the Verkhovna Rada. He underscored that "the overwhelming majority of provisions put forward [by an opposing parliamentary draft bill] had been included" in the new draft the president now supported.

While noting that pro-presidential lawmakers were fighting to include a provision that a parliamentary vote should elect the president, Mr. Moroz emphasized that neither he nor other opposition lawmakers would accept such a proposition.

National Deputy Viktor Yushchenko, leader of the Our Ukraine faction, came out against the coordinated draft legislation in a commentary that appeared in the respected Kyiv publication, Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, in which he announced that he opposed any type of political model for Ukraine, except a "republican presidential" type of government, which he called most effective for Ukraine at this point in history.

Mr. Yushchenko, the most popular politician in Ukraine and an undeclared presidential hopeful in 2004, said he did not support either the old presidential draft bill or the new coordinated version and lambasted his Socialist and Communist partners in the oppositionist political camp for cooperating with the presidential forces.

"It looks like our colleagues are ready to play their part in the game of division and to give new imperious powers to their recent opponents," wrote Mr. Yushchenko.

Mr. Kuchma seemed to address his soon-to-be campaign opponent when he stated during his Independence Day speech that it was time for those with large political ambitions to cast them aside for the sake of the country's political development.

Mr. Kuchma maintained that he continued to believe in a two-chamber Parliament and a reduction in the number of deputies - two ideas that he had originally proposed, but subsequently dropped as he drove for political compromise. He explained that he had decided to focus on the most important issues: the clear division of opposition and pro-political forces and the development of lines of political authority and responsibility over the government.

He said he had no doubt that the Ukrainian people supported political reform and consolidation - generally in the manner proposed by the president - and suggested that those political forces that wished social instability were responsible for railroading his original reform plan.

The president's speech, which began with a simile that compared 12 years of Ukrainian independence to the 12 months of a solar cycle, also enumerated 12 items needed to ensure a solid core for Ukraine's future well being. Among them Mr. Kuchma listed: "the sweetness of independence," followed by state building; democracy; a developed political culture; an effective multi-party system; free markets; rule of law and protection of Ukraine's citizens; the individual as the highest value of Ukrainian life, "not just in the declarations of politicians, but in real life"; active involvement in global affairs; the spiritual and psychological health of society; and the need for the country to purge itself of a sense of low national self-esteem.

| Home Page |