Verkhovna Rada postpones hearing on nomination of new prime minister

by Olga Nuzhinskaya
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada ended its session on Thursday, February 3, without considering Yulia Tymoshenko's nomination as prime minister amid behind-the-scenes negotiations over who would fill the Cabinet of Ukraine's new president.

Adam Martyniuk, vice-chairman of the Rada, said lawmakers would reconvene the next day as all the issues on the day's agenda were considered by the Parliament, except the main one - approving Ms. Tymoshenko as prime minister of Ukraine.

"The president is not ready to decide it right now," he said as he adjourned the session. He added that there are "heated consultations."

The nomination vote had already been set back four hours after President Viktor Yushchenko said he wanted to be present for the session.

Many lawmakers speculated that the real reason was the intense jockeying for positions in the new Cabinet of Ministers among the diverse political parties that made up Mr. Yushchenko's campaign coalition.

Mykola Tomenko, a Yushchenko ally, blamed deputies from the Socialist Party for negotiating over some Cabinet posts and several oblast chair jobs, but said he is sure that "everything will be decided by Friday."

Mr. Tomenko added that the government was "95 percent" formed.

Socialist Party Chairman Oleksander Moroz backed Mr. Yushchenko in the run-off for the presidency in exchange for Mr. Yushchenko's acceptance of constitutional reforms that reduced presidential powers.

"There is a big conflict of interests between Yushchenko-Tymoshenko and the Socialist Party," said Raisa Bogatyreva, a top ally of losing presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych.

On the eve of the vote, Prime Minister-designate Tymoshenko dispatched a 63-page, five-year government program to lawmakers laying out her goals: to dismantle corruption, to raise living standards and to lead Ukraine into membership talks with the European Union.

"Our government work would be exclusively in the interests of the people," she wrote in the program, titled "Toward the People."

"New government policies would be constructed on a clear set of principles: honesty, openness, patriotism, professionalism and effectiveness," she wrote.

Ms. Tymoshenko said that if she is approved, President Yushchenko will immediately sign an order naming his Cabinet.

The goals laid out in Ms. Tymoshenko's program follow the campaign promises that helped propel Mr. Yushchenko to victory in this country's most disruptive election campaign ever. Ms. Tymoshenko pledged to separate business from government and said that if Ukraine's economy experiences growth - such as its tremendous 12.3 percent jump last year - the people should also notice a change in their pocketbooks.

The main tasks will be overcoming poverty, creating more jobs and ensuring "secure and comfortable conditions for life" for the nation of 48 million. Ms. Tymoshenko also said the government would strive to "realize the European choice" - a reference to President Yushchenko's pledge to find a place for Ukraine in the EU.

Among specific proposals in the program were: ensuring access to free medical care, protecting intellectual property rights, converting the military to full contract service by 2010, reforming Ukraine's corrupt judicial system and changing the nation's image abroad.

Regarding Ukraine's relations with Russia, Ms. Tymoshenko's proposals call for "real and active dialogue" and deepening Ukraine's role as the main transit route for Russian gas to Western Europe.

Ukraine must "define the level of its cooperation" with the Single Economic Space that Russia is seeking to create among some ex-Soviet republics, the program says - a significant step back from former President Leonid Kuchma's pledge to link up with the group.

It notes that Ukraine should deepen its integration with Western organizations and continue to participate in NATO's Partnership for Peace program, but makes no mention of seeking membership in the military alliance.

Ms. Tymoshenko was the most visible of Mr. Yushchenko's allies during the Orange Revolution. Side-by-side with Mr. Yushchenko - and more than anyone else - Ms. Tymoshenko was the political face of the mass movement.

Ms. Tymoshenko will need to win a simple majority of 226 votes in the 450-seat legislature. Many lawmakers said she should easily get the necessary support and expressed regrets about the delay in her approval

"I am embarrassed for the new authorities, I apologize to the Ukrainian people for it," said Yanukovych ally Nestor Shufrych. "I think that today the new government should have shown its unity, but they showed their greed for official positions and the country's resources," the national deputy added.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 6, 2005, No. 6, Vol. LXXIII

| Home Page |